


Ceaseless Nightmare (Vol 1)

by DecemberAzure



Series: Nightmares that Haunt [1]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Divergence - Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Female original character - Freeform, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles/Blue Lions Joint Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions/Golden Deer Joint Route, Game: Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019), Game: Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020), Gen, Male My Unit | Byleth, Multi, Spoilers for Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 62,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25112422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecemberAzure/pseuds/DecemberAzure
Summary: "We've gotta be dreaming... this is like a fucking nightmare!"
Relationships: Carlos Oliveira/Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Edelgard von Hresvelg & My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Original Female Character(s), Jill Valentine & My Unit | Byleth, Leon S. Kennedy & Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy/Edelgard Von Hresvelg, Marianne von Edmund/My Unit | Byleth
Series: Nightmares that Haunt [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818847
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue: Creation of Project Isadora-G

**So like.... I've written this one before, and it's[here](https://www.quotev.com/GoddessofMultiverse/published); I go by GoddessofMultiverse on that site. Currently working on the second part of the series so in the meantime refrain from reading it if you choose to read it here instead so you won't be spoiled. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this one. Plus, currently got S ranks on Assisted and Standard so I am doing Hardcore right now. Wish me luck :'s**

* * *

**[February 27, 1998]**

"I have a mission for you, Wong."

Standing in front of a man is a woman with neck-length crimson hair, flawless dark-skin and emerald eyes. She wears a red tube-top with a black elbow-sleeved jacket over it and matching black pants and dark brown heeled boots. Around her neck is a golden choker and in her hair are black ribbons attached to large rings hooped in her hair. The woman currently wears an emotionless look on her face.

"What is it?" Isadora questioned.

The man began to calmly pace in the room, "Recently one of the researchers had successfully created a new virus known as the G-Virus. Supposedly, this new virus is said to be more superior than the T-Virus based on the reports he had sent us before cutting ties. His name is William Birkin, and he had refused to hand over the virus to us since our proposal."

"And you want me to take them in your stead." Isadora stated. This made the man look over to him, although his eyes are covered by his shades, she could feel the chills traveling down her spine just by seeing her reflection in them. A smirk was formed on his face.

"Sharp as always, just like your sister." He then turned his back to her, to face the holograms showing the data and the layouts of a city Isadora quickly recognized. "As you should know, he takes his research beneath Raccoon City in the underground facility connected to the sewers known as NEST. There, William resides and keeps the virus." As he explained this, the hologram takes a detour of showing the underground level of Raccoon City, then moving from the sewers to where the cable car is as it heads further down to reveal a large facility that came to known as NEST.

He turns back to her, "I want you to collect every last one of them."

-

Getting into the sewers is easy. Getting past the watchful eyes of those with William Birkin is another, since every Umbrella workers knew each other if served under them for so long, other than the recent recruits. But either way, older members would keep a tag on them, and Isadora herself is no better.

She hijacks her way into the cable car and NEST by climbing through the vents. Isadora was aware of where William keeps the virus, which is P4-Level Lab in the West Area. The woman was amused at the lack of security, possibly thought William is so sure of himself that his creation can never be taken. In time, Isadora reached the vent that is connected to P4-Level Lab as she watched William storing away the vials after he was done with them and was inspecting the small storage that is across from his office.

From her view, she can see about 10-15 samples of the G-Virus inside which made her smirk like she hit a jack-pot. She waited for William to be done with whatever he was doing and closed the panel, before making his way out of the lab for other purposes. After several moments of him out of the room, she pressed the button for the vent to sling open abruptly and lands on her feet in a kneeling position.

Getting up, Isadora wanders over and peers through the window, seeing all viruses there.

"Okay, all of them are there. Now I need to get this thing open and..." Taking out a device and hacking the mechanism, there was a hiss before the doors slid open to reveal the samples. Getting a case from the office and opening it, Isadora takes each sample into the case with care one by one.

One wrong move, and Isadora can potentially cause a pandemic.

She knows Umbrella's dirty secret and the failures they had done with numerous experimentation. The experiments failed because of the viruses that were created, and in turn mutated the people into either the undead or the monsters that have instincts to hunt, kill, and feast on flesh. Though it was the same with the undead, they only instead spread the infection.

Isadora knew this two years ago, but couldn't do anything about it. Those who attempted to reveal Umbrella's true colors or leave the cooperation, ended up being killed on the spot. It was the same for those who attempted to go against them, such as the STARS members who discovered the mansion incident and the truths it lies there. Isadora had to keep turning blind eye, so that she can still live. But at the same time, she wanted to leave even if it means trading her knowledge of their dark secrets with her life.

After getting all of the samples in, she closed the case and the storage to leave. However, as Isadora attempts to leave through the vents, the grate suddenly slammed shut and the electrical door leading out of the lab suddenly locked itself in place. Which pretty much shocked her at the sudden turn of events, "W-What the?!"

At this time, an alarm sounded off as there was a sudden smell that Isadora knew too well.

Anesthesia.

_**'SHIT!!'** _

Holding in her breath, Isadora tried hacking the system to get herself out of there but the device started malfunctioning and the security system NEST had tightened to the point hacking it was pointless. Desperation took hold of her, as she scrambled over to the doors and started pounding on them for anyone to get her out. She was forced to gasp loudly from the lack of oxygen, and had no choice but to inhale. The drug started to take effect, as she slumps to the ground feeling drowsy and her vision blurring.

As she laid down with the case beside her, the last thing she sees was a group of people in protective gears and gas masks walking in and kneeling over her.

That is when her world went black.

-

Isadora woke up with a startled gasp, before squinting her eyes away from the lights above her that nearly blinded her. It took only a couple of moments for her eyes to adjust the blinding lighting. Though she had looked to the side to have her eyes readjust better, before noticing the room that looked oddly familiar to her. Isadora looked down at herself, stripped out of her agency clothing and wearing a gown that is normally used from hospitals for patients. With a dumbfounded gaze, she then saw the machinery above her head, with the arms holding needles.

All the needles are empty, luckily.

Except.... **one of them is filled with a purple liquid**.

"I see you're awake."

Isadora looks over to her left side, seeing William Birkin standing there with a stoic look on his face. His hands were in his pockets and there was a table with a tray occupying it. On the tray was an empty vial, where the G-Virus was once contained in. She looks at the empty vial, before looking at him with wide eyes when she connects the dots. And the uneasiness started to crawl up on her when she realized even more what this means.

"You.... what are you doing?!" she demands.

"Well, Umbrella was kind enough to lend me a test subject to carry out the experiment for my creation. What better way to inject the virus into than the high-esteemed agent herself?" William said.

Then it clicked in her mind.

This mission she was given.... it was all fabricated! They lied to her to get the samples so William can use her to test out his virus. She wondered why her of all people, when there are so many within the HQ for them to pick out and have them be turned in instead?! Panic crashed in, and Isadora tried all her might to break herself free from the restrains while William calmly watches in amusement. She knows what will happen.

If that virus gets into her body.... she'll be nothing more than a failed experiment.

"Don't worry, it'll be over with before you know it." William started toying the the controls as one of the arms from the machine extends over to her outstretched left arm. There's nothing she could do, as the needle embeds itself into one of her veins and the virus began to enter her body.

Isadora recalled the searing pain after the needle extracted. She felt her body convulsing and she was screaming and thrashing with the eyes of the man who created the bio-weapon upon her. Her vision blacks out as she felt her body becoming numb after what felt like minutes of unbearable pain.

Little did she realize.... the G-Virus **bonded** with her on a cellular level. Upon learning this, other researchers that created other viruses began to take this as a sign to inject their own viruses with William's consent. After all, if the G-Virus bonded with her then chances are the other viruses they've created should do the same as well. And they have predicted correctly. All viruses: T-Virus, T-Abyss, T-Veronica, Chrysalid, and Animality have bonded with her as well.

She became William's prized experimentation, the silver lining of an era where humanity can be even more inferior.

Became the ultimate bio-weapon that Umbrella now have set their eyes on.

-

_"Why have you brought him here?"_

_"We heard rumors regarding of his unusual results that could be worth investigating. The higher ups figured with that object in his body, he could be your new test subject."_

_"Is that so? Very well, put him in the chambers beside Project Isadora-G. I'll carry out the procedure soon."_

**_"Dr. Birkin. You'll come along with us quietly."_ **


	2. The Fall of Raccoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raccoon City is an industrial metropolis located in the American Midwest.
> 
> Jill Valentine, a member of STARS, has been conducting investigations solo as she seeks the truth behind a deadly incident.
> 
> Little does she know, a whole new nightmare awaits...

**[September 28, 1998]**

_There were sirens ranging through the chilled air, as the_ _ambulances and fire trucks rushes through the streets with numerous people having a panicked riot as cops and SWAT team tried to calm them. People, in the midst of their panic, would ended up attacking the nearest person when paranoia gets the best of them. People would even break the glass of other homes or stores, as there would be buildings on fire._

_Some were even crazy enough to toss themselves in front of a vehicle to kill themselves._

_As this was going on, helicopters soar above as the news reporters are currently live on television for all across the country to see._

_"This pandemic has spread faster than any disease in modern history"_

_"You need to disperse immediately!"_

_"Angry mobs roam the city, burning buildings"_

_"Authorities are bracing for more rioting tonight"_

_"There are fires burning, there are people being beating, there is looting"_

_"He was knocked_ _unconscious, he had severe lacerations all over his face"_

_"A citywide emergency has been declared"_

_"The CDC has quarantined the lower mid-western region of the USA"_

_"Officials can't say"_

_As this was going on, the events had suddenly moved on to the hospital that is currently occupied by the amount of researchers and doctors that aren't particularly disturbed by this sudden turn of events. This hospital is overrun by the people who worked for the company, highly known for their high-esteemed products._

_Umbrella._

_" **Commitment, honesty, integrity. These are the core values that create the foundation for Umbrella Corp.**_ _"_

_Within the surgical room, there were doctors performing tasks on a hulking figure strapped to the operating table. The only thing visible are the metallic thing attached to the chest where the heart is, while a single arm is outstretched. One of the veins is protruding, and one of the doctors had a syringe filled with red liquid within, ready to be injected._

_He inserts the needle and pushes in the liquid, which starts to became visible within the vein._

_" **It's this foundation that will continue to build a brighter future for all of us.** "_

_The arm suddenly pulled against the chains, as the single eye opened with a menacing growl._

_-_

Atop of a building where the helicopter is, currently running and ready for take off. But not without a cargo. The people in suits are currently strolling in a large container, handling it carefully as though one wrong move could easily awaken whatever is inside. As the container is being rolled into the chopper, there is a label on it as one could read it before it was loaded:

**CARTRIDGE FOR BIOWEAPON**

**0211 - 01 - 1231 - 236 - A910**

**CODE NAME: NEMESIS**

**-**

**{???'s PoV}**

**I woke up to the sound of rain. Or maybe did I wake myself up? I wasn't sure, but I slowly opened my eyes and found myself in my own apartment in my bed. The colors seemed off, as though I was back in the 1920's with the lack of coloring. All various shades of black and white. Sitting up in my bed, I feel a throbbing in my head as though I had recently recovered from a very bad headache.**

**I guess I sort of took too many pills...**

**Looking over to the side of my apartment, the TV I left one is going static. I brush it aside, thinking it was because of the storm that is brewing hard. Speaking of rain, I rose myself from bed to close the window. I really don't want my floors stained wet...**

**My skin is starting to itch a little... please don't tell me I had bed-bugs biting at me while I was sleeping. Well, nothing but some ointment can't help with. Although the nagging thought in my mind was telling a different story. It's always been nagging at me ever since that incident months ago...**

**With a shake of my head, I make my way over to the bathroom for the ointment. The sound of water running caught my ears, and I sighed in irritation. I can't believe I forgot to turn the water off before I went to bed. Upon entering, the water facet is on with the water running.**

**I reached over and turn the handle for the water to stop. But no sooner after I did that, I saw two crimson droplets staining the sink and the waters soon. Where did that come from?**

**Wait....**

**I'm bleeding?!**

**I raise my head to the mirror, staring at my face in horror as the blood kept dripping from my nose. Then my right eye-socket turned rotten with my pupils turning pale white. I was frightened, stepping back away from my reflection and seeing myself turning.**

**I then felt my arms rotting as I looked, seeing the veins popping and the blood bursting from my skin that is peeling off and tearing.**

**This can't be...**

**This can't be happening!**

**I tried to walk forward, but I stumbled to the ground as I was groaning inhumanely. Like how the zombies had groaned and growl, I recall how they sounded like as though the Arklay Incident happened just yesterday. With enough strength, I pulled myself up and look at myself clearly once more.**

**I looked.... like them.**

**I can't spread it... I must not spread the infection!**

**My right hand moved slightly, and I looked when I touched something heavy. My gun. I quickly grabbed it and looked myself back in the reflection. With no hesitation, I raised my gun to aim at the temple of my head. Trembling, knowing I would be dead surely but doing this for the sake of others, I shut my eyes and took a deep breath.**

**I'm sorry, everyone...**

_BANG_

_~_

A woman with short brown hair and blue eyes woke herself in a startled gasp. She looks at her hands quickly, from her dreams did she recall them blood-stained and rotten as vital signs of infected. They weren't in that state, rather they were clean and she found herself on her desk with a marked calendar beside her, lamp and paperwork included. The woman sighed heavily.

"It gets worse every night..." she muttered to herself, getting up from her seat.

She stumbled her way over to the wall that held the map of the entire layout of Raccoon City, with pictures and papers pinned in various areas. This was something she was working on ever since she and the other members of her team were unexpectedly disbanded by the chief. The woman thought it was odd at first, but then figured it may be due to the fact she and her team were trying to reveal the truth.

It would explain why the chief immediately rejected their claims, and even was being demanding for them to be quiet. The next was disbanding the forces, and herself getting the suspension. While being suspended, she was sure that wherever she goes she cannot ease the feeling of being watched in every corner. Trying to keep her silent of course, and it was getting to her slowly.

She couldn't eat right...

Couldn't sleep right...

She had to take pills to sleep regularly, but even they don't work.

To get it out of her mind, she wanders over to her bathroom and turns on the light. She looks at the sink as the water is filling and being drained, before raising her head up to look at her [reflection](https://images.wallpapersden.com/image/download/jill-valentine-resident-evil-3-remake_68148_2932x2932.jpg). Though her nightmare showed her reflection of her infected self, her actual image only showed her flawless and healthy glowing skin. Not a single blemish nor blood on her at all, and her eyes still functioning and good.

Sighing, she turns it off and heads her way out.

When she did, her phone suddenly started to ring.

"Who could that be?" She muttered to herself, wandering over to get the phone. "Alright, alright I'm coming."

The woman grabbed the phone and dials it to pick up whoever is calling her, placing it to her ear. "Hello?"

" _Jill! A-Are you OK?_ " came a man's voice. The woman, now known as Jill, recognized the voice clearly. It belonged to one of her comrades from STARS, Brad Vickers.

"Brad? Is that you?" Jill asked.

" _Listen! You gotta get out of there!_ " Brad said urgently. This made Jill furrow her brows in confusion, since this was out of nowhere for Brad to sound so... urgent and alarmed.

"What are you talking about?"

" _I don't have time to explain! You gotta get out of there, RIGHT NOW!_ " Brad said loudly through the phone. Whatever it is, she'll have to do exactly as that. She'll ask him by the time she gets out of her apartment.

Perhaps something bad is happening to the city?

"Alright. Let me grab my"

Jill couldn't finish her sentence when the wall right in front of her suddenly burst, making her cry out in surprise and landed on her back close to the wall behind her. Her phone was thrown out of her hand, and broke from the sudden drop which Jill has no time to look over while sitting up from her side. Only instead to look at her broken wall and saw a large black figure hunched within.

It was huge, wrapped in black material with several yellow markings that said 'caution'. There's something on the chest, like it was some kind of arc reactor to protect its heart. There is one thing that let loose millions of alarms ringing in her mind: this figure is a **monster** , not a human.

This must be why Brad was yelling at her to leave.

The monster steps forward into her room with a hiss, over to her. Jill looks over to her left with her pistol laying there. She grabs it in haste, only for the thing to kick her to the wall and she cried out in pain and hunches over. Quickly shaking it off, Jill raises her head and pistol to shoot. The bullets weren't working, and so the thing grabbed her by the left shoulder and hoists her up in the air.

The grip was painful, and so Jill tried shooting it in the head. The head was wrapped up as well, and so her third bullet created a hole where the eye had to be. She wasn't able to get a quick look, as the creature slams her down to the floor. With a pained shout, she saw the thing raised its foot to stomp on her. She quickly rolls away and the foot struck through her floor and gets up in time to avoid the punch that went through her wall.

Abandoning her pistol, Jill rushes over to her door and hears the creature stalking after her. She hastily opens and closed her door, with her back against it. She lets out a surprised sound when the thing had punched her door, creating a dent. Jill knew she isn't safe and therefore, must leave right away.

But one thing is bothering her, as she was running down the hall for the exit.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Jill pants in alarm.

That must be one of Umbrella's failed monsters!

But the question is, what kind of monster is that?

She heard a sound behind her, making Jill look over and only to quickly duck when she saw the thing toss a large piece of what looked like a wall towards her. It flew past her, and she was dropped to her knees with a startled gasp when the wall busted the door in front. She looks behind her, seeing the creature must have some kind of intelligence to prevent her from escaping.

That's not good.

Seeing the door beside her, Jill rushed inside and closed the door. With the large case beside it, she grunts with effort to tip it over in front of the door to prevent the thing coming inside. With that over with, she had a feeling that alone will not be enough to stop it.

"Gotta get out of here." Jill rushes over through the room and towards the window that is thankfully open. When climbing through, she heard a loud sound coming from the other side of the door with the shelf still blocking it. Chills went down her spine, when she heard the monster yelling.

It sounded like it was yelling 'STARS'....

"What the hell?!" So that monster can speak? Brushing it aside, Jill makes her way downstairs and climbs through the open window connected to a level below where she lived. After seeing tons of shit going on outside of the building, the guy falling to his death, and the other being burned alive from the window he's perched on. The room she's in looked like it was currently going under-construction but wasn't finished because of this.

But that isn't important!

Jill was heading for the entrance there, ignoring the fact it was set on flames. Then the monster came crashing down from the floor above, which made her shout in surprise and landed on her side. She looks up with wide eyes, as the monster growls and went to punch her. Jill rolled to the side, barely avoiding the attack, and started crawling her way through the open space.

She heard something that sounded like flesh while crawling away, before she felt her left leg being grabbed by something long and wrapped around her like a rope. Grunting, Jill tried to crawl away but only felt herself being dragged in. She looks and spots a sharp piece of stone which she grabbed, turning herself as she lets out a cry of effort to cut off the tentacle.

Getting herself up over to the doorway, Jill rushes out and makes her way to the right with the exit door being there. She runs over, ignore her staggering footing with the only objective in mind to get the hell out of there. By the time she reached the door though, the explosion behind flew her out as she cried out, and managed to hold herself with the rails in front.

She grasped onto the rails and shakes her head, turning over to the stars to make her way down. Turning around the corner for another set of stars, did she see a ladder. Her eyes lit up a little, seeing the ladder as her ticket to get away from the apartment building and getting away from the monster.

"OK."

Then the wall beside her burst down with a large hand grabbing her head, making her shout. The monster seemed relentless to never let her leave out of its sight, and tossed her back into the building which had her roll onto her back in pain. Getting up on her knees and crawling away from the monster, she watches it stalk towards her as though taunting her.

Then it slams its fist down, and Jill rolled to the side to avoid it. While she was grateful for a second he didn't manage to hit her, dread fills in when the floor beneath them creaked before giving away. Gasping in surprise, Jill gets herself up to start moving. Only to look in horror when the monster grabbed a large piece of cement and had it ready to slam on her.

_**'Oh hell no!'**_ Jill thought to herself and started running away. Or more like, staggering herself away from it as the monster gave into chase with the cement grazing against both sides of the wall. It gained up on her, but the piece got stuck at one point which gave her enough time to get far ahead. But not for long as the monster continued to pursue her, yelling 'STAAARS' while doing so.

Jill burst herself out of the exit door, collapsing to her knees and backing herself away as the doorway was suddenly blocked off by the remains of the cement the creature was using to try to kill her with. Luckily, she made it out alive and she dearly hoped that would be the last time she'd seen it. Getting up, she makes her way out of the alleyway and seeing people running off to the sides in a panic.

Could the infection... reached the city?

At that moment, a man in a yellow jacket was about to run past until he had looked over to her direction and backtracks himself to meet her half-way, "Jill! Over here!"

"Brad!" Jill breathed in relief, staggering over to him.

"You OK?" Brad asked, seeing the state she was in. No doubt in his mind that Jill must've had her run-in with that monster he was warning her about. He had the same experience earlier, and barely managed to escape without getting killed. And it looks like Jill managed to do the same as well.

"What was that thing?" Jill questioned him.

"Damned if I know. But right now, it's got a hard-on for the only two STARS left in town: you and me." Brad said based on what he figured out, gesturing to himself and her as an example. After all, that thing did yell out STARS, so it takes a genius to figure out what the monster is after. "I'm not sticking around. Just look around you. The longer we wait, the more screwed we are." he added, noticing Jill looking over to him before he takes off.

Jill follows after him, "How did this all happen so fast?"

"I dunno!" Brad begins, before shielding himself when a car came speeding and crashed into a pole just a few feet beside him. "But one fucked-up thing always leads to another. It's like Arklay on steroids!"

Both of them reached close to where the cinema is, after getting out of the street they were on. At this time, two choppers flew overhead and headed over to the left side, which made Brad waving his arms to try getting their attention to get out. "Hey! Hey, wait! Down here!"

He runs over to where the choppers were heading, and so Jill picked up her pace to not lose sight of her comrade.

"Ah, goddammit!" she heard him cursing. Jill looks around while going after Brad, for she could not believe when she saw the people infected by the virus. She just can't help but wonder, with the insane amount of people living in this large city, and already seeing this many infected, how can this be possible?

"We've gotta be dreaming. How could this many people be infected?" Jill muttered to herself.

When she looks ahead, she became alarmed as the zombies started to climb their way over the fences. "Brad! Here they come!"

Brad turns and steps back as the fences topples over, and the zombies began to roam. He quickly looks over to the bar beside them, and gestured Jill over as he makes his way over there, "In here!"

Not needing to be told twice, Jill runs over and enters the building as Brad grabs the sign tosses it over to the nearby zombie to slow them down. However, they were coming over fast as they had closed the door behind them and used their body weight to keep it shut. Brad spots the other door.

"Door behind you! Go!" he shouts, and Jill nods to go over there. Though when she rushed over there and was about to open it, she heard Brad grunting in pain which made her look over. To her horror, a zombie had taken a bite on Brad's left forearm and he released his knife to the ground in his failed attempt to stab it.

"Brad!" Jill shouted, rushing back and picking up the dagger to stop the zombie in the head. The zombie released its hold and staggers back, allowing Jill and Brad to close the door as best as they could. She looks over to him, seeing him holding onto the wound.

"Don't think about it!" Jill tells him. "We're gonna make a run for it!"

"C'mon, Jill. We know how this ends." Brad tells her, both of them still using their bodies to keep the door shut as the zombies from the other side try to break through and feast upon them. Even though Jill knew what he meant, she still refused to leave him behind.

"No. I don't." Jill said, looking at him with a defiant look.

"Are we still a team?" Brad asked her.

"Always." Jill responds.

"Then do me a favor and don't fuck up like I did. Go!" Brad grabbed her arm and pushes her away from him and the door. She looks back to him, seeing Brad pressing his back against the door to block himself alone. Stepping back with a shake of her head, Jill then rushes back to the back door and runs out of the building.

"I'm sorry, Brad..." she muttered to herself, making her way around the alley. She came across a body leaning against the wall, and for a second she though it would be a zombie. But then a pistol in the lap caught her eyes, and so she gets closer and grabs it, "Sorry."

Jill unloads it, and sees the gun still has some ammo leftover and puts it back in. A crash from behind made her turn, seeing a zombie coming out. Jill raised her gun, but then pauses when three more came out and then reconsidered the amount of bullets she has.

With a second decision in mind, Jill makes a run for it. There's no way she can take them out all at once, not with low ammunition on her. She gasped when the large sign came crashing down in front of her. There was no other way around it, so she had to crawl through to get to the other side and made her way to the alleyway that is to her left. Jill runs down, and saw a blinding light flashing over her and the area she's in.

" _You down there! Get to the parking garage roof!_ "

It's the rescue chopper! She can get out of here!

"Parking garage. Got it." Jill pants. The door to her left was left slightly open, and luckily for her this building is a shortcut to the parking garage that's nearby. She enters in the building. There was a bulky man standing few feet in front, and she was glad to see another survivor like her.

"Sir, are you alright?" Jill called out. Her call startles the man as he turned and steps back away from her in fright. Well, she can't blame him for not taking any chances if she's infected or not.

"Stay back! Don't come any closer!" he tells her, and started his way over to the cargo.

"Hey, come on. There's a helicopter waiting to take you to safety." Jill said, following after him but keeping her distance. The man didn't seemed convinced, even despite the fact the chopper can be clearly heard from outside and hovering above the building.

"What 'safety'? I'm not going out there!" he shouts, climbing himself up inside the cargo.

"The parking garage isn't far. I can take-"

"The only safe place is in here!" the man cuts her off, before closing the door on her.

**_'Are you serious?'_** Jill thought to herself in disbelief. Well, there's nothing she can do to convince him other than to leave him be. She walks around, finding ammo for the pistol and leaves the penthouse. She stiffens when she looks over and sees the infected dog barking and trying to get to the other side.

Choosing to ignore it, Jill makes her way over and sees the fence had toppled over with zombies leaning against it. Although it was still navigating enough for Jill to crawl through, and crawl through she did. She was about crawl her way out when a zombie tried to attack at eye-level which frightened her for a second but managed to get out before the zombie could bite her.

With the parking garage in front, she rushes over to the elevator. Ignoring the zombie stuck in the post area, she was about to press the button when the elevator's door slid open and surprised her with two zombies. In a retaliation of surprise, Jill pushed one off of her and weaved her way around the one that's crawling and hastily presses the button.

The elevator slid open, but only enough for her to squeeze by. Jill squeezed her way inside and cried out in surprise when the zombie tried to get in. She kicks it, and quickly pressed the button for the elevator to take her to the roof with the door closing itself, She lets herself take a moment to breathe in relief.

"Come on..."

She breathed in and out.... in and out. Jill tells herself to be calm, as this will be all over once she gets on the chopper. When the elevator slides open after it came to a stop, Jill steps out and was immediately blinded by the search-light from the chopper.

"Hey! Down here!" Jill shouts. The chopper then soars over to the open area, and floats there in place for the pilot to lower itself.

" _Hey, get in!_ "

Jill runs over to the chopper, as relief blossoms over her. With a sense of freedom dangling in front, she knew this would be all over. Once she gets in, she can finally escape from the city now plunged by the infection Umbrella had unleashed. She can finally live in peace in a different place...

**_BOOM_ **

Jill was shocked to see the chopper was attacked, and it looked like it was hit by a rocket. Or maybe something bigger but she can't quite tell. The chopper spins around to her right side, before it exploded and the force had made Jill crash into an orange car on her back. With a grunt of pain, she looks over to the remains of the chopper, with liberation of her fate shattered into millions. She gets up, when a foreboding feeling washes over her.

Jill feels like.... she's not alone.

With that in mind, Jill tried to leave the area but then stops herself when a familiar creature revealed itself into the street light. That's when she knew, that this monster was responsible for destroying her only ticket of leaving this city. She looks over to the car, and a plan formulates.

Running over to the driver's seat, Jill hastily opens the door and pulls out the body occupying it.

"Sorry."

Getting in and closing the door, Jill turns the key but the car engine did not start. She raises her head, and the creature was getting closer than it was before.

"Oh, come on. Start, dammit!" Jill curses, turning the key again and the car refused to start. She raises her head, and the monster was closer than before. She turns the key once more, and this time the engine started much to her delight. She pulls the lever for the car to start driving, and sets her hardened and determined gaze to the monster, "It's my turn, bitch!"

Stepping on the peddle, Jill accelerates the car towards the monster. The monster had raised its arms seconds before the car crashed into it. To her surprise, the monster was still standing tall. Then it suddenly thrusted its right arm through the windshield and grabbed her neck. She struggled to breath and decided to step on the gas.

She kept her foot down, for the car to use more gas to overwhelm the monster. Jill's vision was beginning to darken and for a second, she thought her plan didn't work out. But at the last second, the car started going once more and the monster wasn't able to keep itself in place. The bad thing is, she couldn't see where she's going with the thing blocking her view.

So she felt the car going airborne and the monster had released its hold on her. She was screaming as the car then plummets down along with the monster to the ground level. The car slammed into the monster, before it rolled off to the side with Jill being caught up within as well. The car was flipped upside-down, and for a moment Jill was still for a moment before coughing.

She heard movement.

Jill looks over to the left, seeing the monster on ground before it slowly raises itself up. She was in disbelief. No human could ever survive from a nasty fall like that! Much less the fact that fucker had a car slam itself down on him that weighs a ton! That monster must be some kind of Tyrant!

Grunting, Jill moves her way out and she hears the monster advancing towards her. She felt liquid and she looks down to see oil draining out from the car she had just used. Getting up, she only took a few steps forward when the car exploded into flames and her being knocked back down to the ground. With a surprised cry, and turns herself around to see the creature still stalking towards her.

This time, she could see its face. The ugliest facial features ever. But it was still terrifying to look at, even as it wanders over to her slowly with nothing that could truly hurt it. Flames sticks on him, as Jill was crawling away from getting herself hurt.

Although as it got closer-

"Hey, fuckface!"

The monster looks over, with something being shot towards it. The creature's tentacle caught whatever it was, only to reveal a rocket. It was dangling in its hold, before the creature had it tossed aside and exploding a nearby street before it looks over to the person responsible for it.

It was a [man](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/p__/images/3/3d/CarlosRE3make.png/revision/latest?cb=20191214190647&path-prefix=protagonist) wearing a mercenary outfit, perched atop of a car with a weapon in his hold. It was a rocket launcher. The man fired it again, and this time the monster wasn't prepared for it and takes the hit. Groaning in pain, it fell onto its knees and hunches over before staying still. The man took this as his opportunity to rush over to Jill, even abandoning his weapon to help her up.

"Hey, easy lady... I got ya." he said, as Jill turned to look at him.

"Who are you? What are you do"

"Name's Carlos, and I'm saving you!" Carlos said, helping her getting up and slinging her arm around his shoulder to support her. "C'mon, let's get you someplace safe."

-

"So that's the infamous Jill Valentine." A woman mused herself, as she and her companion had witnessed this from atop of a tall building. This woman wore familiar dark clothing with crimson neck-length hair, with her having two guns strapped on her hip and back. She even has a dagger in its holster, strapped on her lower back.

Beside her is a man wearing dark clothing as well. Though his hair color is minty, with his eyes being emerald. One would think he dyed his hair, when in reality that is his natural hair color. Hoisted to his side is a sword, though unusual looking as it seemed to be made of bones and not metal, while it appears to be glowing in red under his touch. He bore an unreadable expression, as he was keeping his gaze on the monster below.

"No doubt since she knew everything about Umbrella, they have created that thing and programmed it to kill her and other remaining STARS members." the woman added, straightening her back and popping her joints in place. Seriously, she had just left the sewers and the facility, and it felt like years for being trapped in that place.

Though... she had no idea how long was the man, who is beside her, confined in there. That damned woman had told her the presence of another person being there as well, and was planned to be experimented on earlier until this whole thing started. She mused to herself that the man should be lucky that he isn't experimented on.

"Should we deal with it?" the man questioned, turning to her.

"Not right now. But perhaps we can look after the surviving STARS member..." she responded, looking at the direction Jill and Carlos had went and disappeared to. Her instincts alarm her, and so she snapped back to the creature, seeing it getting up and letting out a roar for its prey had gotten away.

"Nemesis will prove to be a nuisance for her, after all." she added as an afterthought.

"You're going to the station, Isadora?" the man questioned her.

Isadora paused a bit, while keeping her eyes on the retreating Nemesis. She thought about the deal she had made with the fucker's wife. If she wanted to get out of there, she'll have to search for the daughter and get her out of the city. But what can she do with him, since the woman suggested for her to take him along.

....

Perhaps she can have him accompany supercop lady there. An introduction will be necessary, though.

"First.... we need to meet-up with Jill. That way, it'll be easier for you to help her out. I did tell you all about techs and weaponry of this era, and the dangers Umbrella had created and unleashed." Isadora said.

"That simple?" the man furrowed his brows.

"That simple, Byleth." Isadora nods.


	3. Operate the Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill encounters Carlos Oliveria, a soldier part of Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service who was sent out to rescue civilians much to Jill's displeasure after all the things Umbrella had done to Raccoon City. She only agreed to help the MV platoon to help the people they've saved by moving the train.
> 
> Meanwhile, two unknown individuals are clearing paths for her and leading the bioweapon away from Jill.

When Carlos mentioned someplace safe, Jill wasn't sure what to expect in all honesty. She thought it would be some kind of hideout like a school or museum of sort, since they tend to be the perfect place to take refuge in. Though that isn't always the case. But certainly she did not expect the subway station to be the place. But at least it comes with a getaway if the horde had managed to found their way in and started to infest.

That is, if the subway train can still operate.

"I think we're clear." Carlos said calmly once they descended down the stairs. Jill detached herself from him, hunched over and breathing from the pacing and to recollect herself from all the events. To think all the shit-show that happened had left her breathless with the adrenaline finally calming down.

"Hope so." Jill said, thinking back to the monster that chased after her. She at least hoped they are far enough to be away from it, otherwise it would be good for her to catch a breath.

"We've been bringing survivors here." the man began as he looks over to her. This made Jill straighten her back, when she averts her gaze to him. A questioning look clear as daylight on her face.

"Here?"

"My guys have converted some subway cars into shelter." Carlos wanders over to the flight of stairs for a quick inspection. Seeing they were clear, he turns back to her with a nod. "It's safe."

_**'Hopefully it stays that way...'**_ Jill was skeptic at first, but decided against it. As long as the infected and that monster have not breached over to the subway station then it's fine by her. Carlos then wanders back over, and intended to wrap his arm back around her for support.

Jill, however, gently rejects it by blocking his arm with her own, "I'm fine."

"Personal space, OK." Carlos steps away from her to give her space. "I get it. Let's go." He turns his back towards the area ahead. But then he noticed the shutters were down, which made him huff in irritation, "Aw, come on. Who's the dipshit that closed this?"

He then fast-paced over to the door, "Sorry. We're gonna have to go around."

Jill turns over to him, "Hey, what do you know about that monster?" she asked him while Carlos was getting the door open. Though it seemed to be locked, that didn't stop him from forcing it to open by using his body. It swung open, as the pair enters through.

"Nothing. I've never seen anything like it. But it's no zombie. It knows what it wants and won't stop until it gets it." Carlos stopped and turned to her for a brief moment when he was about to turn around the corner. While of course Jill was coming up to him, but still kept her distance from him.

There was something about the way he dressed was bothering her a bit...

"Don't you like that in a man?" Carlos joked.

Jill, breaking her train of thoughts, looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "No thanks. He's all yours."

If that was his attempt to lighten the mood a little, then he obviously failed. Besides, this is no time to joke around with the pandemic going on. Especially when their lives are at stake, perhaps even the survivors around in this big city and the subway car whom he stated he and his men had gathered and dropped off to.

He shrugged and pressed forward, and she followed.

"Listen, I promise you're in good hands." Carlos began as he leads her to the subway train. "I'm with the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service. UBCS for short."

Hearing this made Jill stop dead in her tracks, right at the top of the flight of stairs as Carlos descended down. She stared at his back with a look of disbelief, with anger quickly rousing up within her. He's with Umbrella? And is he saying that he and his other men are helping people, when their company had caused shit to the city?!

"Are you kidding me? Are you _fucking_ kidding me?" Jill started, pretty much yelling at this point at the hypocrisy. "You guys are the ones who caused all of this!"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa." Carlos began, turning around and looking at her in confusion. He genuinely had no idea why did the woman he helped out suddenly got angry. "What are you talking about? We're just here to help people. What's wrong with Umbrella?"

Jill scoffed before glaring, " _What's wrong with Umbrella?_ Oh my god. Your company is responsible for infecting everyone!"

What right of decency does Umbrella even have?! They were the ones who made illegal experiments and those very experiments had caused many people become undead and into monsters! They cared less about what they'll do to the world, but only themselves for profit! And now they decided to send men to help people?!

That's the most stupidest thing Jill has ever heard. If this was Umbrella's attempt to come clean, then it's too late for them! Unless... this was their way to prevent any suspicions to be placed upon them. Typical!

Carlos stared at her momentarily, not even grasping onto the accusation. "Yeah, uh, I don't know anything about all that."

Jill scoffs, averting her gaze to the side.

"You don't have to trust me, but I'm going to the shelter. You comin'?" Carlos questioned. He doesn't understand why Jill was making a fuss about Umbrella, but he can't abandon his duty to help people with her being one of them. She looks back to him and wordlessly heads down as he turned and open the door with a kick after noticing it's locked.

He turns to her and gestures her to follow, "C'mon. It's this way."

Jill follows him down the stairs, eventually the station being in view. She sees the lights are on within the train, and even barely getting glimpses of survivors within. Though as she gets closer, they were occupying the other cargo as the one Carlos was leading her into only has one occupant. She enters, and takes note of a man older than Carlos wearing similar outfit with a red beret on him.

"Hey Captain. This fine young lady could use our help." Carlos said while kneeling himself down to the case that is beside his superior. The man eyes Jill, as she eventually came to stand in front of him after inspecting the cargo. So far, it's clear and no traps. And catching a glimpse of the other survivors.

The man then looks over to Carlos.

"Carlos, you didn't even think to ask _fine young lady_ her name?" he reprimands Carlos for a bit, making Jill looking over to him as he sets his gaze back on her. "She is an elite operative of RPD Special Tactics and Rescue Service. Her name is... something... Valentine."

It looks like she's well-known among Umbrella, Jill muses herself.

"It's Jill." she said neutrally, slowly taking a seat in front of the man. Meanwhile, Carlos seemed to be messing with the case and upon taking a quick glance, he seemed to be in the middle of making a herb spray.

She doesn't need one, and neither does he.

"Nice to meet you, Jill." The man nods with such condescending. "I am UBCS Platoon Leader Mikhail Victor. My team was send here to rescue civilians." Mikhail introduced himself, before grimacing and holding onto his side. From there, she could see the blood stains and eventually realized he was the one in need of the herb spray.

But either way, he's good as dead.

Jill looks over to the side where the survivors are, and almost smirked in amusement. "Right. How's that going for you?" she questioned, looking back to him as Mikhail leans back a little in his seat before hunching over again for comfort from his wound.

"The city is completely cut off. Isolated." Mikhail began. "Most of the hundred thousand civilians will wind up dead. Ah, correction: undead." he corrects himself at his final sentence.

Jill leans back in her seat. Well great. If Raccoon City is cut off from the outside, then it would be rather difficult to get help from the government to send rescue teams and perhaps even back-up. But knowing if they had, then the virus would surely spread much faster and they don't want to take any chances at all.

"My platoon has suffered serious losses. Just keeping them alive is more than I can manage." Mikhail said.

"Well, you can thank your corporate overlords for that." Jill said.

"Yes, well..." Even Mikhail couldn't hide the fact Umbrella had created this hellhole, but he doesn't have the authority to change it. "We are doing the best all we can. If we can get this subway train moving..." he gestures the said transportation they're in before letting down his hand to his side. "...we can evacuate some survivors."

Then a grim look appears on his face, "But we need help. My men cannot do this alone."

Jill looks at him before averting his gaze to Carlos. She could care less of what would happen to the two of them, but she cannot ignore the fact this train is the only way to get the civilians here to safety. As a police officer, it's her duty to help and save people. She is a proud STARS member, the least she can do is simply help their cause.

Only for the sake of the civilians.

She lets out an amused smile, not really believing she's actually gonna help out the people who worked for Umbrella who's job is to help survivors. Jill told herself this is temporarily, because after this then she can move on to find her way out of this city.

"Alright, I'm in." Jill said, standing up. "But I am on their side. Not yours." she adds coldly.

"Oh hey, hey, that's cool. We all want the same thing." Carlos intervened to ease the hostility Jill was emitting. The last thing they wanted was for Jill being uncooperative with them. After all, all that matters is getting the survivors out of there by using the subway train.

Mikhail gave a look of gratitude to Jill, "Thank you Jill."

While they may be enemies, the only thing they both wanted was taking the survivors to safety. He, along with the older men working under Umbrella, had known about what they've been doing the entire time. However, most cared about paychecks while fewer like Mikhail himself cared less about it. Newer ones, like Carlos, had yet to know about their exploits but that doesn't matter now.

Jill glanced at him.

"Alright, supercop. Here you go." Carlos stands up to give Jill a radio. "We can use this to stay in contact."

"I know what a radio is." Jill said rather cheekily to him. This made him smirk a bit from her know-it-all tone, clearly finding it very amusing.

"OK, first things first. We need to get you geared up." Carlos said, collecting his Assault Rifle into his hold. "Head up to street level. You'll find supplies there."

"Alright." Jill said, leaving the subway train to get herself supplied.

-

"Shit, Captain. They really took a chunk out of you." Carlos said, spraying a dose of healing spray over to his senior's wounds. The medicine stung the older man, which only made him clenched his jaw to prevent hissing himself in pain.

"Nothing that I will miss." Mikhail said, waving it off after Carlos was done. "But other than that, clear the tracks so the train doesn't get derailed."

His subordinate nods and did just that. While doing so and pausing in his work of removing debris, Carlos presses his ear-piece to talk to Jill.

"Jill, it's me again. You topside yet?" Carlos called, and pauses to let Jill respond.

" _Working on it. So what's the plan?_ " Jill responded back.

"Old tank's got me clearing the tracks. You mind getting the subway infrastructure back online?"

" _And how do I do that?_ "

"Let's start by restoring power. I'll navigate you to the substation once you hit the main road."

" _Copy that. Let's do this fast._ "

Nodding to himself, the call ends there and he resumes clearing the tracks. After he was over with it, he heads back inside the cargo as he looks over to Mikhail.

"Do you really think Jill can do this?" Carlos questioned him skeptically. He has heard about STARS, particularly the most famed forces of Raccoon City. He was albeit surprised about a woman like Jill to be part of it, since she particularly doesn't look like it.

Not that he's being rather sexist, but he wasn't sure if Jill can actually do this on her own. But there was something about her and the way she outright accused Umbrella for all this mess made him wonder if this wasn't the first time she's dealt with this. Something that made him think that perhaps she can do this but still wasn't sure about it.

"Don't underestimate her. If what the reputation of her is true, then she can handle this just fine." Mikhail said, before readjusting himself in his seat. "But more importantly, I am more concerned about the recent reports I received from Tyrell in regards to Dr. Birkin's prized experiment."

"What did he say?" Carlos asked, curious. This was the first he had heard about this info, especially about a researcher that hasn't shown his face for quite some time and the rumors of him having a successful experiment. At least, that's what he heard from the ones who worked under Umbrella the longest.

"His project had escaped from his lab when this city had become infested with the undead. Based on the reports, his experiment is said to be the most powerful he has ever created and should never be left unattended." Mikhail tells him, glancing over to him. "In any case, not only are we here to rescue civilians but we are also given the mission to recollect it. Chances are, it could still be roaming around the city."

"Oh shit..." Carlos's eyes went a little wide.

-

Handgun ammo, herbs, gun-powder, and ammo for her Assault Rifle. Right, that should be enough for her to venture through the city. After she was sure she is fully sufficient to venture out, Jill makes her way out of the room towards the pathway. The shutters was only down half-way but enough for her to simply duck and walk through.

The first thing she sees are survivors running down the street she's on for their lives. One of them took notice where she came from and scrambled over, crawling through the open space as Jill watches before looking over.

"More survivors," she began, just as she sees a shadow moving from the alleyway around the corner to her left. A zombie emerged, looking over to her and hissing to feast. "We've got to get that train moving." she adds while raising up her pistol towards the advancing zombie.

**(Meanwhile)**

A dark-skinned hand held onto a zombie's head tight, with growls of the infected filling her ears before Isadora then proceeds to dunk the zombie to the ground. The head splattered, turning the spot on the ground where the head meets into a bloody mess along with brain matter sprawled out.

Another tried to grab her from behind to bite her, only for having its neck coiled up by a whip and was pulled back into a nearby building. There, a gunshot was heard and the bullet hole is in the forehead with blood splattering the wall behind a little. The whip was then retreated back into a sword, with Byleth standing over the body but keeping his distance.

"This is different compared to killing actual people." the Ashen Demon said, turning as he witnessed Isadora grabbing another zombie's head and crushed it in her hand. Seeing it made him wince, as the scene took him back to the time he witnessed his close friend savagely killing two soldiers like that.

To him, it was out of nowhere as he kept recalling it. His friend looked to be incapable of killing people with such brutality that Isadora easily matched. He has heard from his other students the house leader's crest gave him inhuman strength, capable of snapping a sword or lance in two. And yet... he went mad when the interpreter revealed their true face and killed them.

Like a boar, one of his student's liked to put it.

Isadora clicks her tongue, tossing aside the body like it was a doll.

"Maybe, but remember they aren't people anymore. The corpse is what's left of them, thanks to the virus fucking them and reanimating them." The ex-agent said, flinging her hands to free them from clotted blood. She surveys the area they're in, which is behind the Moon's Donuts shop and right where the Subway Office is.

Her mind tingled infection on the far opposite road, "Come on, we have more zombies to clean up."

"What exactly are we doing?" Byleth asked her, as they paced down the street.

"Clearing paths for Valentine. No doubt she and the UBCS are planning to restore power for the subway train to get moving. Which means, Valentine is heading her way over to the substation to boot it up." Isadora said, before pulling out her shotgun and without looking aimed it beside her and pulled the trigger.

The mercenary looked down momentarily, and saw she had killed the zombie that was stuck beneath the car. It was likely attempting to grab her leg, but then with her heightened senses Isadora anticipated it and blew the head off. A thought occurred to him, as he bore his emerald eyes to her back.

"Didn't you say the substation became a nest to infected insects?" Byleth questioned.

Once, he and Isadora split up. He took care of the main avenue while Isadora took care of the other side of the road that is blocked by fences. The Progenitor God took care of the infected with quick work, thanks to his relic that can thankfully be used to attack from a distance as well and the handgun Isadora handed him which is a Matilda. He gave the main avenue a major clean-up, ignoring the fact it became a bloody mess with corpses piled up.

Meanwhile, Isadora only inspects the other side and may of watched the other members of UBCS from atop of a building. The viruses within her gave her contributes that not even the Crests in his world can't ever compete. Perhaps inhuman strength is one thing, but inhuman sight, speed, senses is another. Plus, her blood turning into flames when splattered or doing sound waves that can easily erupt eardrums.

Did Byleth mention regeneration?

That made him think the viruses is much more dangerous than perhaps the Slithers, whom he found out from his Golden Deer life including when he sided with the Church. Maybe even Rhea, since he fought her alongside the Adrestian's Empress in the Crimson Flower route. If the viruses could possibly exist in his world, then they are in heaps of trouble. That is, if any of them gotten hold of it or learned about them.

Just thinking about the many lives he had done with all four possible routes he chose gave him a headache. Byleth tried so many times to find solutions and so far, he found none. Azure Moon is his current, and he had several plans which will have to be on hold now that he's in a world that isn't his own. First things first, is survive and find a way back.

Back to the topic...

When they regrouped, Isadora had stated before that the substation is infested with infected fleas. So great, that place became their nest.

"I did. And if we're lucky, we can show ourselves around there." Isadora muses as she turned to face him, a step away from climbing up the stairs. Compared between them, Isadora easily matched her natural height compared to Byleth. That is, if she isn't wearing her heeled boots which made her few inches taller than him.

But then her face turned grim, as she turns to the left side.

"And speaking of which... we might have to drive him away." Isadora said with narrowed emerald eyes. That's when Byleth knew exactly what she meant by 'him', and gripped onto the Sword of the Creator tightly in steeled resolve.

-

Jill eyes the main avenue with furrowed brows. When she came out of the alleyway connecting this area, she had wondered how odd it was when silence settles in. Her point showed the blood and corpses sprawled around the road in distances, as she noticed some places like the supermarket and the toy store is unlocked. She ventured in both of them and got several items.

High-grade gunpowder, healing spray, and two Fancy Boxes. Both contained jewels which are obviously fake, but the one from the supermarket is blue and the one from the toy store is green. Seeing those jewels reminded her of the Subway Station monument that is missing three colored jewels. She found both of these, so all she needs is the red one which might be a doozy.

With that aside, she wanders over to the barricaded area while taking out the radio, "Carlos? I've reached the main avenue. Which way do I go?"

" _See a big transmission tower? That's the substation. You'll have to circle around through an alley to your right to get there._ " Carlos said through the radio. Jill eyes the transmission tower, before averting her gaze to her right where the alley is.

But there's a small problem...

"You mean the alley that's on fire?" Jill questioned him, raising an eyebrow. True enough, the alley where she was supposed to take is on fire, and doesn't seem like the fire can be put out on its own any time right now.

" _...Maybe? Surely a tall drink of water like yourself can put out a few flames._ "

"Fuck you." Jill deadpans. She nearly ended the call, until she quickly realized her recent concerns and decided to address them. "By the way... I noticed something odd when I reached the main avenue."

" _What is it?_ "

"When I arrived here, the street is literally dead silent and there were zombies laying around dead." Jill looks back and wanders over to the nearest body, kicking it to look at its front side. Which she would see deep gashes on the torso and chest. She even looked at the other body, and sees a bullet-hole in the head. "And there were locks and chains that may of locked the stores here previously but was tore down."

She pauses for a moment, "I think I'm not alone. And I don't think it's that monster from before either."

There was silence from the other side.

"Carlos?" Jill called out.

" _I don't think it's one of the UBCS members either; most of them are dead save for a few with Captain and I included. They weren't in the area either. I'd say survivors, but I think it might not be your typical ones._ " Carlos responded after several moments of silence. He must've asked Mikhail to double-check.

"And that's a bad thing, is it?" Jill questioned.

" _Usually, I would say no. But this time, I'm not so sure._ "

"Only one way to find out." Jill said, ending the call and makes her way over to the food joint down the plaza. Which is Moon's Donuts, sad to see one of her favorite joints to be rundown like this. She really liked their donuts...

Totally irrelevant to think about at a time like this.

Right... to put the fire out, Jill will have to find a fire hose. The bigger question would be where on earth will she find one? Ah, perhaps she should try her luck with the Subway Train Office. They should have one in stock in case of fire from one of the tenant buildings.

Entering the donut shop, she found more gunpowder and ammunition for her handgun. When Jill turned to investigate the kitchen, she saw the lock is on the ground and the locker itself is free to open. She peers inside, and a hand grenade is within which she happily took.

In the kitchen, she found a green herb and another fancy box. This one has a red jewel. Lucky, she doesn't have time to search all around the area over something as stupid as the jewel. Even though she had no idea why getting the jewel feels rather optional for her, she feels like there's something more to the monument than what meets the eye.

Heading out through the other entry, Jill became even more surprised to see the back area of the shop was in a similar state like the main avenue. She looks around, seeing the zombies were killed in similar state but few of them had their heads blown off (obviously caused by a shotgun) or had their heads crushed.

That's new.

The fenced door had a broken chain in front, just like how the stores were suddenly giving entry for her.

_**'Okay, it looks like whoever it was came through here as well...'**_ Jill thought to herself. Call her naive for only a bit, bit it seemed like whoever had done this was clearing paths for her. While that is least likely to be possible, at least she could hold onto some ammunition.

The back alley was littered with truly dead bodies of zombies, and there's a suitcase there. She opens it up to find some shotgun ammo, and a hand grenade beside it. Walking out, she investigates the Subway Station office and something caught her eye right away when she looked through the window. She could see what looked like a shotgun hanged up on the wall in the office, which fancied her inner cop.

Moving around, a zombie stopped her in her tracks which she easily raised her gun and spared plenty bullets in the body. Dropping down, she was granted full view of the item she had been looking for. A fire-hose, and she quickly grabs it and rolls it up. Stepping inside the room, she scavenged and found another hand grenade and gunpowder.

Moving up to the case, Jill paused at the sight of broken chains bellow. Shaking her head, she opens it up and grabbed the shotgun, strapping it on her back before she moves on to head for the alleyway. Upon leaving the building, she scavenged through the pharmacy, finding ammunition and green herb and high-grade gunpowder. Leaving the building, she reached for the building via stairs and found more bodies sprawled around the floor.

With that aside, she found ammo and poked around the desk that contains the gunpowder. There was a safe lock beside it but it was open and empty. She kneels down while looking at it with furrowed brows.

"What was inside of it?" Jill wondered.

Then in the corner of her eye, she saw something crimson on the floor which made her look over. It was a footprint, painted by the blood of the zombies in here. Since the blood is still rather... moist, it seemed this footprint was just recently made. Based on the print, it was from heels so it must belong to a woman.

Standing up, Jill follows it with her small flashlight on and keeping her gaze on it. Opening through the door that leads her back to the plaza, she follows the prints and occasionally glances around if she isn't around. At the intersection, she continued going straight since she is still rather adamant to follow the survivor's footprints.

It leads her up to the roof, and she stopped momentarily to get a red herb and combine it with a green one. More zombies were here, about two even though the other is already dead. Yet those very two zombies had their heads crushed just like the ones from where Jill just came from. She would think that monster did it, but there's just no way it had the conscious to care about killing the infected.

Could it?

Unless maybe, the infected are in the monster's way. Perhaps that would be a bit understandable.

Jill furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance, seeing the footprint had faded. "Damn, I was hoping the survivor would be close by..."

But at least she's back to the main avenue, setting down the ladder and climbing down. When entering the alley, Jill unfurls the hose and attaches it to the fire hydrate. With water erupting to come out as soon as she let loose the lock on the nozzle, she sways around the water and the fires had slowly been put out.

"Alright..." Jill said, putting down the hose and presses on. Turning around the corner, there's a door and she opens it. It looks like she's in the back room of a mechanic or something. But whatever, the red door to her right had chains on still which meant the survivor didn't come through here.

Ah, a bolt cutter.

As soon as Jill made her way over to grab it, she stopped dead in her tracks when she heard clattering noises from behind. She looks back, staring at the red door since that was where the noise came from. She furrowed her eyebrows, absentmindedly grabbing the bolt cutters in her grasp.

"Is someone in here?" Jill muttered to herself.

* * *

**The one thing FE: Three Houses and Resident Evil 3 Remake have something in common with certain difficulty levels....**

**T O O M A N Y E N E M I E S T H A T C A N E A S I L Y K I L L Y O U . . .**

**D':**


	4. The Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> STARS member, Umbrella's former agent, and the Ashen Demon finally cross paths only to be invaded by the presence of the monstrosity that now hunts down two targets.

Even though there was no other way, Jill had to use the Bolt Cutters to break the chains. The noise certainly gave her two scenarios running through, either a survivor who is trapped within there or perhaps someone had locked in a zombie there. Or the other, a B.O.W. but she had not once ran into one yet. If either of the last two are true, she can gun it down.

If a survivor is there, either still kicking or wounded...

She cuts the chains and set the Bolt Cutters aside, opening the door wide and stepping in. Jill was anticipating a monster or a zombie the moment she gets in. But to her secret relief, she finds a wounded mercenary on the ground leaning against the car in the garage. She makes her way over to him to help him, when he sees her.

"You're UBCS?" Jill asked, kneeling down.

"Yeah. C-Careful, careful." the man grimaced when Jill was observing his wounded leg. He seemed to be in pain, since the wound he had on the leg had to be bothering him. When he looked at her expression, he added, "C'mon don't look at me like that, alright? I'm not an infected!"

Well, he isn't yet. But what if he wasn't hurt by the zombies and got himself into an accident? There's still a chance for her to help him out, perhaps by getting him back to the station before continuing her way over to the substation. But first, Jill has to take care of the wound.

"OK, let's take care-"

"No no no wait! Please!"

_BANG_

Jill gasped in shock and surprise when the sound of a gun going off filled her ears, with blood lightly splattered on her face with Murphy falling onto his side. She sees the bullet hole in his forehead, which made Jill instantly realize he had been shot by the person behind her. With a look of disbelief and anger, Jill stands up and looks over to the person responsible for it.

It was a man older than her by few years, having white hair and dressed similarly like Murphy and Carlos. He had a gun in his hand, and boring an unreadable look on his face.

"What the fuck!" Jill said, as the man kneels down in front of Murphy.

"He was infected." the man reasoned casually. That simmered Jill's blood, at the lack of empathy this man was expressing. He seriously gunned down one of his comrades without giving them his regards. He was sure of him being infected, but not being considerate if Murphy hurt himself instead.

"He might of been infected." Jill said angrily with a slight glare.

The man stood up, looking over to her before scoffing. "Are all STARS this soft? No wonder so many of you are dead." He said, walking over to the set of staircase that leads to another door.

"And what are you?" Jill walks after him, not being done with him. "UBCS? Killing your own people?"

This made the man stop dead after taking a few steps up, turning back over to her and wandering over to her. "He would have turned. Where is your sense of self-preservation?"

There's something the way this man said those words. Jill wasn't sure of it, but she didn't like it one bit. And the way he was looking at her as though she was nothing but some kind of asset? It was setting off so many alarms in her head. This sense just took her back to the Arklay Incident, with the captain of her team.

Something was telling her... to keep her guard up with him.

She leveled her gaze at him, until he turned and started heading back up the stairs. 

"Go back to the subway station. We don't need a bleeding heart like you getting in the way." the man ordered her, reaching the door and opening it to leave the garage. This made Jill scoff in disbelief at him telling her to go back.

Was he treating her like some weak-hearted woman who can't bring herself to harm others?

Jill felt insulted. She can definitely take care of things on her own, and deal with monstrosities as the zombies and that creature that chased after her. She dealt with this thing similarity before, and honestly she won't hesitate to deal with them.

Well... with her comrades, she can't bring herself to kill them while conscious. She would try helping them free from the infection, but even she knew it would be futile. Vaccines are scarce, and not very easy to come across with. The only option is putting them down, which she knew she won't have any choice but to do it.

But still, that doesn't mean she'll let it hold her back and give up.

Regardless... she has a mission to do.

Upon leaving the garage, Jill finds herself in the back alley and to the side she saw chalk-marks that looked to be done by children. With a shake of her head, the ex-STARS cop makes her way down the stairs and on her way over to her right side. She found ammo by a dead body, whom Jill learned this UBCS member had killed himself when he realized this mission was no ordinary one he was expecting.

Perhaps seeing all the things in this city had him go crazy and paranoid of his own life. Rather than letting himself be killed by the infected, he would rather take his own life.

Jill heads for the opposite way. When she turned around the corner, there was a power generator sparking. She recalled seeing one right in front of the Moon's Donut shop earlier but didn't think much of it. And there's fences keeping the infected at bay, as they were hissing and trying to get through. Jill stopped dead when she heard the howls of dogs.

Correction: infected dogs.

Two came into her sight from around the corner ahead, making Jill reaching for her shotgun. One infected doberman was ahead of the other, so it lunged itself at her to bite for her neck. With quick reflexes, Jill rolls to the side and hone-shot the dog from behind it. Hearing the incoming second dog, Jill ducks as the body had practically flew overhead ans landed on its feet before turning to growl at her, aggressively.

Hearing the sparks behind her, a plan formulates.

When the dog tried lunging at her again, Jill rolls away from it. She aimed her weapon at the generator and when the dog landed close to it, she pulled the trigger. Electricity erupted from the thing, and it got the infected animal pretty bad as it whimpered loudly. With pity, she wanders over while it was vulnerable on ground and finished it off.

Exhaling deeply, Jill lowers her gun and presses forward.

The substation is just in front of her. Great, a step closer to getting the subway train moving. When reaching the entrance, Jill makes her way through the gate before reaching for the actual door inside. She was instantly greeted with three lingering zombies inside. She made quick work with each of them with her shotgun, for heads being blown off obviously.

Last thing she wanted is the V-ACT waking up within them. Jill is not in the mood for any of them to be added in the fray, with wandering infected dogs, people, possibly bugs and maybe something like that monster to make things worse like right now. She looks around, finding more supplies: gunpowder, red herb, and ammunition for her Assault Rifle.

The next room is the control room.

The first thing she noticed as she walked in was seeing some kind of... disgusting mass beyond the window. Jill's face grimaced at the sight, wondering what the hell made it's home here. Whatever it is, she'll have to be on the look out for any insects that became infected.

Jill looks at the panels in front of her, seeing each four screens showing the location of the breakers to boot up the power. Right... how will that help her if she doesn't have the fucking map of this place? The only thing she could do is memorize the paths, and then she should be good.

When she walks out to get there, however, the rotting smell hits her. Gagging at it, she instantly covers her nose as she coughed and almost at the edge of retching. The smell of it is just.... unbearable.

"Ugh, it smells like..." Jill nearly threw up when a thought came into her mind. One that particularly matched the scent, and she knew saying it in comparison would surely make her loose her dinner. "Oh, I don't even wanna think about it." she added while climbing down the stairs.

As she makes her way over to the door, Jill hadn't noticed the green herbs off to the side on the shelves. She pursed her lips, seeing the door is locked with a locker. What the hell? Does she need some kind of key to open this? Sighing in irritation, she looks to the side wondering what now.

She blinked at the sight of a corpse in the corner at the end of the hall, with something in its arms. With slight curiosity etching her, Jill wanders over slowly with her handgun ready to shoot. When in front, the corpse made no reaction to her approaching it. She lightly nudges it with her foot.

No reaction.

Jill puts away her pistol, before looking down. Eyeing the red box, Jill kneels down and grabs it in her hand once she knows the corpse isn't reanimated. Though when she looked at the box, a spurt of blood with a sound of something bursting out had startled her, hastily getting up to step away.

The corpse's abdomen was open, with intestines sprawled out with bugs crawling out. This made her blanched a little at the sight, covering her mouth with her free hand.

"Oh my god." she muttered behind her hand, wandering herself away from the site. Jill has no intentions to linger any longer, for she did not want to find out how that person got bugs inside him. After recollecting herself to forget about what she witnessed, she looks at the box and began to open it up.

She beamed a little, seeing Lock-Picks inside.

_**'Perfect, now I can use this to open up the door!'**_ She thought to herself, placing the box beside the green herbs and making her way back to the door. With the new item in hand, Jill works her magic to unlock the locker. This was nothing new to her.

Back in her days, Jill had always carried her lock-picks to unlock any doors that are locked when going on missions. In fact, during the mansion incident she had kept one on her and would use it when she couldn't find keys that would unlock them specifically. Kinda the lucky thing, fun while it lasted sort of...

After unlocking it successfully, Jill puts it away in her pockets and removed the locker.

Though when she went to open the door, she heard something that sounded like crawling. Jill turns sharply, and sees nothing. She looks to her side, and there's nothing there as well while cautiously stepping forward. Heart pounding, she was inching towards her gun when she sees something in the corner of her eye.

Some kind of fluid dangling from above-

Wait...

Jill looks up, and was face-to-face with an insect B.O.W. known as the Drain Deimos. It screeched at her for being spotted, and before Jill could do anything the infected creature swiftly grabbed hold of her throat. Gasping in surprise, Jill hanged onto the limbs and suddenly, the Drain Deimos stuck something inside of her through her mouth.

Then she muffled in disgust, feeling something foreign and slimy being drained down to her throat. This thing was putting something inside of her, and it was forcing her to swallow it. She struggled to break free but its hold is vice-grip. Eventually, it retracted and released her before scurrying off.

Jill coughed loudly once she's back on her feet. She kept coughing and heaving, hitting her chest to get whatever is inside of her out of there. Hell, she even resorted to gagging herself by sticking a finger towards the back of her throat to make herself vomit. Nothing worked, and she felt her stomach burning unbearable. She sees her vision blurring out, and she was getting even more frantic to get something out of her.

"Hey! Are you okay!" came a new voice, which sounded like a woman, with two sets of footsteps rushing over to her side.

A hand held onto her back, while Jill herself was still coughing. With her head down, she makes out dark brown heeled boots and similar black boots. More survivors, she thought to herself quickly in utter relief. Which was quickly shut down when the more important matter is, was getting the bugs out of her. She quickly realized that must be how the man got the bugs in him and she knew she'll be like that any moment now!

"G-Get it out!!" Jill managed to shout to them before coughing, desperate for them to help her out.

One of them had quickly stepped away and came back in seconds, with a green herb in Jill's view.

"Eat this quick- it'll get rid of the parasites." the woman said. Hearing that made Jill snatch the green herb with greed, shoving it into her mouth and munching on it before swallowing it. While it tasted planty, she doesn't care at the moment when suddenly bile was building up in her throat.

With a gurgle, Jill instantly vomits to the ground heavily. With her stomach bile on ground, she makes out the parasites as well, which either melted or dispersed. She coughs loudly, and wiping away the excess from the corners of her mouth, panting.

"Thanks..." Jill said, recomposing herself.

Facing two of the survivors that helped her. One is a woman with crimson neck-length hair and owning emerald eyes, wearing dark clothing with rings in her hair that has black ribbons, armed with a shotgun on her back and a german pistol to her hip. Beside her is a man with mint-green hair and emerald eyes as well, in dark clothing with a red-glowing sword at his side including a dagger on the right hip. He even has a Matilda with the dagger.

"Don't mention it," the woman said, handing over another green herb at her. "Keep in mind green herbs are nature's bug detergents."

The hell? Why didn't she think about it earlier? Well, doesn't matter 'cause now she knows what to do if that bug shoves the maggots inside her ever again once she heads inside. With a nod, Jill averts her gaze back to the pair.

"Who are you two?" she asked.

The woman grunted a little, "Name's Isadora Wong."

"Byleth Eisner." the man went next, when Jill looked over to him. She nods to herself, giving them a slight smile of her own.

"I'm Jill." Then a thought crossed her mind, "Tell me, were you the ones who dealt with the zombies back in main avenue? You practically saved me some bullets."

Isadora smirked, "Wasn't me. It was all Byleth- we separated for a bit before regrouping to the area behind the donut joint." She points over to Byleth with her thumb while explaining this.

_**'With a sword and a gun?'**_ Jill eyes the glowing sword that's on Byleth's side. The sword didn't even look like it's made of metal at all- it looked like its made of bones or something. But still kinda dangerous looking, since it does has rough edges and all. Honestly, it looked like a plaything to her but upon closer inspection... it doesn't look like one anymore.

But it was giving her a sense of... holy.

Anyways...

"You two should head on over to the subway train. We can take you two over to safety with other civilians." Jill said, gesturing over to the direction she knew where the subway train is. There was an odd glint in Isadora's eyes, but hides it before Jill could notice it. Especially with Byleth glancing over to the dark-skinned woman.

"UBCS are there, aren't they?" Isadora asked, surprising Jill.

"You know them?" Jill questioned her this time.

"In a way, but that ain't important." Isadora shakes her head, having a look of disgruntle on her flawless face. "Appreciate the concern, but we're not like any of those civilians who can't protect themselves. Byleth and I are like you, survivors who are surviving this madness and taking down B.O.W.s. Especially Umbrella, of course."

This perked up Jill instantly.

They knew about Umbrella's true colors?

As far as she knew months back, no one in Raccoon City believed a single word about what she and her comrades had seen. They were labeled delusional, and cast aside like they were nobodies and regarding Umbrella on its high pedestal. No one believed them, and realized too late about Umbrella's inhumane experiments and what they've done.

Hearing that they knew about Umbrella's real face... is the most liberating thing she's ever felt. Finally! Someone who had seen through Umbrella, and not just her nor Brad nor the others who are close with her!

"Anyways, enough standing around. You're here to boot back up the power, correct? We can help you so you don't have to stick around in this place much longer." Isadora offered.

"Yeah, that would be much appreciated." Jill nodded, just as Isadora went on ahead and opened the door with Jill and Byleth following her. When entering, the inside of the substation was covered in rotten flesh. The pungent smell had gotten more unbearable than when outside.

Jill had instinctively covered her nose, since it was really making her want to vomit again. Isadora and Byleth, however, remained stoic as though the smell was wasn't disgusting to them. When they turned around the corner with light ahead that lights up the corridors, Isadora suddenly stops.

The dark-skinned woman grabbed her own shotgun, and aimed it above her in the corner and pulled the trigger. Jill hears the sound of a body being burst, and legs of the Drain Deimos coming down from the ceiling along with yellow fluids that is practically its own blood.

"One is behind us." Isadora suddenly said.

Byleth suddenly whirled around, much to Jill's surprise before she too turned. In time to see that the mint-haired man had fired his Matilda three times to another Drain Deimos that attempted to attack them by surprise. Once it laid limp on ground, the elite cop looks over to Isadora questioningly.

"How did you know those things were there without noticing?" Jill questioned her.

Without looking back to her, Isadora pursed her lips.

She can't exactly say it was because of the viruses within her. It does certainly give her a big help by sensing the other infected that is deemed a threat for her. But Isadora isn't completely thankful for it, and not planning to embrace it. If anything, she would be more than happy to get it out of her body to be human again, and die like one as well. But in the meantime, she make use of them.

"Six senses, thanks to Agency Training." Isadora said before moving forward. Jill looks over to Byleth, and he simply nodded and follows after her. Jill watched their backs, before going after them with an unconvinced look. Sure, it would be plausible that Isadora is an agent, but her mind was nagging.

Nothing in this city would prepare them for Umbrella's failed experiments, nor for the viral outbreak. The city doesn't even believe a single thing about the supposed cannibal murders, and the things STARS had revealed after leaving Arklay. No one believed them, and remained ignorant until now.

Isadora said she knew UBCS in a way, did she? What does she mean by that?

"There's one." Byleth said, regaining Jill back from her thoughts. In front of them is one of the four circuit breakers, with a light emitting bright red that signifies it wasn't on yet. Didn't Jill spot one from that hall in the corner of her eye?

"Get this one on, Byleth. Jill, there should be another nearby." Isadora said, on her way to leave the two behind. "I'll go look for the third one, so watch your backs." she added before pacing away.

"Alright." Jill looks over, seeing the Ashen Demon already getting the lever pushed up. Jill heads down and makes her way to the second path ahead from where they came from. With another circuit breaker in sight, she rushes over when two Drain Deimos blocked her way.

Remembering the shotgun kills them instantly, she used the same tactics Isadora had pulled before making her way over to the circuit breaker. With a grunt of effort, Jill managed to push up the lever after a moment had passed and the breaker lights up the area.

She leaves the area, and Byleth meets up with her. Behind him, she sees the circuit breaker he was stationed with already turned on.

"Should we find Isadora?" Jill suggests.

"She'll be here any second." Byleth responds, just as more Drain Deimos showed their faces to them. Both mercenary and elite cop worked together to kill them off, even though the spaces of the corridors of the substation had limited their maneuver. 

Jill noticed, as she killed one off, that Byleth would switch between the sword and his Matilda. Matilda would take him three to two shots on the infected insects, but with his sword all it takes is a single clean cut. The sword, she could've swore it hummed with unknown power.

Her eyes went wide when Byleth had strike the sword like it was a whip towards an advancing Drain Deimos that is making its way across, and the sword _extended_ itself like an actual whip and impaled the B.O.W.. Then he retracts it back into a sword from being extended before he turned and sliced another in half when it leaps at him.

_**'That sword isn't normal...'**_ Jill thought to herself, just as the wall that blocked their way up front suddenly burst, revealing two more. They were quickly killed by Isadora herself who was on the other side, shooting one before she mercilessly kicked one away from her.

"They're all activated, let's move out!" Isadora shouts, earning nods from the pair as they break into a run. The monsters chased after them, but they weren't fast enough to catch up to them. The trio made it out of there, and Isadora slams it.

"OK, all that leaves is the main power switch." Jill said, gesturing over to the building in front. They climbed up the stairs, knowing the Drain Deimos wouldn't bother pursuing them from beyond the nest. When entering, they got in front of the panels with Jill activating the switch with all looking through the window.

"Enjoy that." Jill said with her, Isadora and Byleth seeing the large mass collapsing due to the power forcing it to come undone. There was a large sound emitting from beyond, but that doesn't concern them as long as the tower doesn't collapse.

"Alright, we should head over to the Railway Building fast before that thing comes back." Isadora said, quickly leaving the room with Byleth following. Jill wasn't sure what she meant by that, but she has a pretty good feeling what thing the woman was referring to. Though she hoped it would be something else besides the very one.

While walking down the steps, Jill picks up her radio to contact.

"Carlos, it's Jill. I've restored power to the subway." Jill said, letting go of the button for Carlos to reply.

" _Nice going! Nest up is the traffic control system. It should be in the subway company's offices._ "

When Byleth looked at the item in Jill's hand, he looks over to Isadora with curiosity.

"Something to stay in contact with another person when far apart." Isadora simply explained, and the man nodded in understanding. This made him think about the simple letters he and the others in his world had to pass it on with hawks or owls, with risks of archers shooting them down.

Now he kinda wished they knew a thing about technology.

Jill simply looked at them oddly, mainly to Byleth.

He doesn't know what a radio is? Genuinely?

Pushing it aside, Jill responds back to Carlos. "Right, I think I know the building."

" _Really? Way to go, partner. One step ahead!_ "

"Not your partner." Jill dismissed rather rudely, ending the call.

They head out the building, and were back on the streets. The zombies were suddenly gone from the fences from laying on the ground, but Jill thought nothing of it. As the three heading towards the alley to retrace back to the garage, however, Isadora felt her mind screaming danger with the ends of her hair standing. She stops in her tracks, taking a brief moment of registering the warnings of the viruses within her.

Then her eyes went wide, "JILL! BYLETH!! GET AWAY FROM THE BUILDING TO YOUR RIGHT!!"

Both of them stopped and turned to her with surprised looks, before the walls of the building burst from within along with fire. Both of them scrambled back for safe distance, as a large figure emerged and glowered down at all of them menacingly.

" **STAAARS.** " the monster hissed.

"That thing again?!" Jill shouted in shock, raising her gun. Growling menacingly, Nemesis swung its left fist at the Progenitor God and the remaining STARS member, but they both rolled off to the side to avoid getting hit. Jill raised her gun again and started shooting, but Nemesis easily shook it off and raised its arm until something wrapped around its wrist.

Nemesis looks over, seeing Byleth had used his divine weapon to prevent him from hurting Jill. With his Matilda ready, he fires away, the bullets burying into the hulking body and Nemesis turns and stalks over to him. The monster suddenly heard rapid steps, making it turn to the sound before a heeled foot connects to its torso and was flown against the cars off to the side after the Sword of the Creator unwraps itself from the advanced Tyrant.

Jill and Byleth turned to Isadora, who had kicked away Nemesis with brute force.

"Don't bother! Nemesis is after you two, so run!!" Isadora shouts, looking over to Jill and Byleth quickly. "I'll slow him down, so go get the subway train moving!"

"Wait what?!" Jill was bewildered to hear that Isadora had given the monster a name. And the other was the fact Isadora claimed that monster is out for blood; hers and Byleth. She would understand since Umbrella was getting desperate to get rid of her from being exposed, but Byleth?

What does Byleth had to do with Umbrella?

"We have to go!" Byleth grasped onto Jill's wrist and tugs her along with him as he runs.

"Waitwhat about Isadora?! We can't leave her behind!" Jill protests as they ran.

"She can handle it, she knows what she's doing." Byleth said with confidence, stopping momentarily when Jill ad taken out her shotgun to blast away a nearby zombie's head when they reached to the stairs. They rushed up and headed inside, with Jill frantically reaching for the radio to contact Carlos.

"Carlos, that thing is still alive! It's after me!" Jill said with urgency.

" _What? Run! Come back to the station!_ " Carlos responded.

"Not until I get traffic control online!" Jill said, putting the radio away as Byleth had already made his way through the red door. "Alright, if I remember right the building should be behind the Moon's Donut shop. We can use the ladder I put down as shortcut." she tells the Ashen Demon.

"You mean the one that said Kite Bros Railway?" he asked her, when they stepped out and rushed over to the main avenue. There's no telling how long can Isadora stall the monster, or whenever it'll appear if they aren't fast enough.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Jill said.

It took them some time to get to the building, since there were new waves of zombies blocking their way. They took care of them, so that way they wouldn't have trouble getting back to the subway train station. Plus, it would be rather bad if that monster eventually comes and Isadora wasn't there to stop it in its tracks.

They went into the control room. Before, Jill had quickly checked it out in case of supplies and it was relatively dark. Now its light up, thanks to the substation back on. She picks up the radio again while watching Byleth inspecting the large screen ahead and glancing down to the panel in front of him.

"Carlos, I'm in the control room. Now what?" she questioned him. Though she had yet to tell him Isadora and Byleth are with her, she suppose it would be better if they meet in person instead. That way, it would be faster for introductions to be over with.

" _Nice! Now you gotta plot out a route."_

"OK, gimme a sec." Jill walks over to stand Byleth, eyeing the panels that had the map tapped to it mainly before back on the screen. "Alright, where are we headed?"

" _The train is stopped at Redstone Street. We need to reach Fox Park Station. Can you program that in?_ " Carlos questioned her.

"Hey I'm supercop. Consider it done." Jill said, ending the radio and seeing Byleth messing with the controls. She was surprised that Byleth seemed to get it, as the panels read 'RE-01, FA-02, RA-03, SA-02, FO-01' from top to bottom before he pressed the 'ENTER' button for confirmation for route to be confirmed.

' _Valid route confirmed'_ said a male computer voice, as both watched the specific labels turning green.

"Nice work." Jill smiled, clearly impressed while Byleth gave her a small smirk. She pulls out the radio to contact Carlos once more, "Carlos, it's me again. Finished inputting the subway route."

" _Jill, you are amazing! Tough as nails, too. Hurry back to the station. We'll make sure the subway is ready to depart."_ Carlos said, ending the call there.

"Alright, let's head back." Jill said, and they went out of the control room. Though when walking down the hall, the body that Jill thought was truly dead suddenly raised itself up with something around the head. It was a mass of flesh, which soon grew legs and a tendril atop of it with a bright-orange suction.

"What the hell?" Jill voiced her bewilderment, hand on her gun. Though it wasn't necessary when Byleth extended his sword to it, which impaled through the head deeply and the fleshy mass disintegrated. He pulls back, and the sword is back in its original form from being a whip momentarily.

"We have to keep going. There's no telling if Nemesis is here already or not." Byleth said, stepping forward.

It was odd to call that monster Nemesis.

Isadora had told him that is the codename Umbrella had given it to the more powerful Tyrant. But it was still rather odd, since the Nemesis he knew is a bandit that Sothis was killed from for her Crest and had turned her into the very weapon in his hand. Nemesis, a man that killed many Nabateans for their powers and turned them into weapons. Slaughtered many from Zanados, and Rhea was one of the few survivors.

The truth behind Nemesis, the Elites, and the origins of the Crests and Hero Relics churned his insides. All it took was four lives, and never had he imagined the truth would be enough to make Byleth very nauseous. And thinking about it right now, with many people of Fodlan being oblivious and Rhea feeding off lies for the sake of her and the remaining Nabateans' safety makes him want to scream to the heavens.

"Hey."

Byleth turned to Jill, noticing the look of concern on her face.

"You alright?" she asked him.

He shakes his head, "I'm fine, just recalling bad memories."

"If you say so." Jill said, and now Byleth realized he was so invested in his mind that they are in the donut joint. Well, barely inside and they made their way to the entrance of it. That's when Jill paused, and looks over to Byleth with slight narrowed eyes.

"You know... I can't help but wonder why the thing is after you. What does Umbrella want with you?" she questioned him. Byleth doesn't reply, but wasn't sure what to say.

He himself have no idea why, even Isadora wasn't sure of it. Byleth himself is just a mercenary, that killed many people as part of his profession to get around alongside his late father. Soon, he became a professor of all three houses in his previous lives, and is currently the professor of the Blue Lions. A mercenary and professor, soon to be Archbishop, having the power to rewind time for only a little thanks to Sothis.

A progenitor god, Rhea had addressed him firstly.

He paused.

Now that he thought about it....

"I'm not sure, to be honest. But I have a good assumption why." Byleth said, after a moment of silence. Jill turns to him, giving full attention while crossing her arms slightly.

"Well, what is it?" Jill silently gestures him to continue. "I know the only reason would be killing you to prevent you from exposing them. But since you only knew about Umbrella's true colors, without solid proof, that couldn't be enough for them to try to kill you indirectly." she adds that info for effect.

And she knew she was right.

"First, we head to the station. I'll tell you, if you promise me not to tell anyone. That is, when the timing is right and if Isadora is fine with it." Byleth said, walking past her and opening the door widely. Jill decided to let it slide and heads out closely behind him. But her face nearly collided into his back at his sudden halt.

She instantly heard roars of the monster and the shouts of Isadora, making her move around before her blue eyes went wide in pure shock. Her expression was similar to Byleth's own. Jill knew for one thing that Tyrants are strong, and was built to withstand heavy hits. The Nemesis thing had to be a new kind of Tyrant, though Jill herself wasn't sure with what virus.

But seeing Isadora single-handedly tossed Nemesis over her towards the restaurant to their right like a ragdoll made her jaw almost drop. That monster had to be heavy with its height! And yet Isadora tossed him like he was just a pillow!

"Holy shit!" Jill cursed.

"Come on!" Isadora waves her arm for them to get going, snapping the two out of their trance and moved forward instantly. They ran up the stairs and Isadora instantly turned, seeing Nemesis emerging from his crashing site and roaring in rage. She pulled out a Flash Grenade, pulled the ring and tossed it when Nemesis ran towards the STARS cop and the Fell Star.

The grenade went off, blinding Nemesis as it growled and held onto its single eye with a hand. With a nod, Isadora leaps high onto the roof of the restaurant and jumps down into the alley way where Jill and Byleth are just in front of her. She catches up to them, and the zombies had halted them in their tracks. With quick work, they went through the shutters with Isadora being last as she slams it down with her foot.

All of them took this as their time to recompose themselves. Eventually, Jill looks at Isadora. So many questions ran through her mind. She would regard Isadora being a survivor and an agent like her and the others, but after witnessing her in a heated fist-fight against Nemesis... That's when she knew Isadora is more than that.

"What are you?" she questioned her, making Isadora look at her.


	5. Sewers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some truths are told, before the reunion is interrupted by the advanced-Tyrant and escaped to the sewers.

**WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH AND GORE**

* * *

Isadora stayed silent as she looked at Jill. Then she averts her gaze, turning to head on over for the subway train.

"Don't you even try leaving the conversation!" Jill said in a frustrated tone, storming over and grabbed the ex-agent's wrist. Which made the woman instinctively snatch it out of her grasp before Jill could tighten her hold, while looking back to her with intense emerald eyes. Narrowed, likely for not wanting this topic brought up.

"You know what that monster is! You even called it Nemesis! And the way you sensed those bugs back in the substation and tossing aside the thing like he's nothing, not any of us can do that!" Jill shouts. With an exhale from the shouting, she asked once more. "What are you? Why does Umbrella want Byleth?"

Isadora looks at her, then turns around but doesn't move. After several moments of silence, she caved in.

"I... used to work for Umbrella." she revealed, shocking Jill to the core. Jill looks over to Byleth if he knew about it, and judging the monotone expression on his face he certainly does. She looks back to Isadora when he continued, "I worked for them ever since I was ten years old when they found me and my sister. They took us in and trained us as lethal workers, as the agents we are now."

Isadora paused a bit, "I got suspicious of Umbrella one day two years ago. So I dug into their files to see if they were hiding something, and that's when I discovered their illegal experiments of making bio-weapons. I was... disgusted, to say the least and so I grew to despise Umbrella for all the people that were brought in for experiments. And for endangering mankind."

Jill scoffed, "Then why didn't you leave and show proof to the public?"

"Because if she did, Umbrella would kill her on the spot." This time, Byleth responded which made Jill turn to him with a look of bewilderment. "Anyone that tried to leave the organization, Umbrella will kill them to prevent them from exposing their intentions to the public."

"And even if they did, the public wouldn't believe them. Because hello, corporate America." Isadora said with a roll of her eyes, turning around to face the two. "Though to Umbrella, they don't like taking chances so they would've killed me back then if I chose to leave right away. So I was stuck with them until eight months ago when I was given a mission to retrieve samples of the G-Virus."

"Wait, there's another virus?!" Jill questioned in shock.

Umbrella has created a new virus? Why didn't she discover that?

Jill spent the past months doing her investigating on Umbrella, to document proofs of their tyranny works and the things they had done in the past. She worked her ass off getting everything listed, and not leaving a single info out of it. Not once, did she ever come across the fact Umbrella had made another virus, more stronger than the T-Virus!

"Yes, a researcher recently created a new virus that is said to be more powerful than the T-Virus. At the time, this was before the viral outbreak happened so the overlord commanded me to head over here to collect every single vial of the G-Virus." Isadora nods.

"So what happened then?" Jill questioned her.

Isadora pursed her lips. She seemed to be racking her mind as though how will she unveil the truth. In the end, she began removing the belt that carried her shotgun before her jacket, which raised a brow from the elite cop. After removing them completely, Isadora walks up to her and showed her arms to her. Jill looks at them, then covered her mouth in shock.

On Isadora's arms, she could make out injection scars on her. Three on each, with six needle punctures in a form of a six-sided hexagon. Though her skin is dark, Jill could see them thanks to the red-hues. Jill looks at Isadora in the eye, while the Ashen Demon makes his way closer to them and saw them as well.

This was the second time he had to see them, and nausea once again washes over him. He wasn't sure which is much more sickening, the fact he has a scar over where a certain organ used to be or the fact Isadora was experimented on by viral weapons and made her into what she is now, no longer human in her own words. It might be a little bit of both, since both of them aren't people anymore.

"Did they... experimented on you?" Jill asked in horror.

"When I arrived here, yes." Isadora drew back her arms and started to wear her jacket on again before the belt-strap. "I did what I was ordered to, only instead I walked into a trap that knocked me out. When I woke up, I was strapped to the table and Dr. Birkin revealed that he needed a test subject and Umbrella had purposely sent me over to be his first subject. So he injected the virus..." Isadora stops for a moment, clenching her fist tightly before relaxing them. ".... and here I am. I learned that the virus bonded with me on a cellular level, not mutated me into a monster. But... I still am a monster."

"Isadora..." There was genuine sympathetic in Jill's eyes, as well as the rage building up within her for Umbrella's dirty antics.

She just couldn't believe that they send Isadora off to get experimented on, to see if the virus works! And it turns out, it did.

Well... strangely on Isadora only.

Byleth looks over to Isadora when a thought occurred to him, "Why didn't the virus mutate you but it did on the civilians?"

"It's likely because the majority of the people lacks a certain blood-type," Isadora began, quickly glancing over to him with a complementing look. "I'm no genius in science, but that is likely the reason why. The T-Virus was created by a scientist to cure all diseases and used their own blood to stabilize it."

"So you're telling me that was why they created the T-Virus to beginning with?" Jill asked, with a skepticism on her face. There is just no way that is why the T-Virus was created. They created it to make weapons and such, not as a genuine cure to all diseases.

"That was the original intent of making the T-Virus. But then corruption blossomed within Umbrella, and so the scientist was killed and taken over by the overlords of today who only wanted power and profit." Isadora said, before she wanders over to the monument of the Kite Bros Railway, pulling out three jewels that Jill recognized instantly. She pats herself, and realized Isadora had taken them without her noticing.

There was silence after that, while Isadora inserts the gems into the monument and received a hip-pouch, a custom part for the shotgun, and a hand grenade. It's a wonder how does this thing even operates or how did these things get inside of it. But that isn't their concern, for the obvious is to survive. While Isadora has other things to attend to, but she needed the right time to leave.

"And what about Byleth? Why does Umbrella want him?" Isadora walked past Jill when she asked her this. The ex-agent of Umbrella stopped close to the escalators, and stared ahead.

"...I might have an idea why but I could be wrong. Your only best bet is if they reveal it themselves." Isadora turned her head to glance over her shoulder to Jill. "Which is... unlikely." She heads down, while Jill looks over to the mercenary with an unsatisfied expression. Byleth only shrugged lightly, and the pair followed after her.

Isadora was standing among the other level, and they caught up with Carlos who was standing in front of the way towards the subway. He stopped short when he spotted two unfamiliar faces, looking vaguely surprised but brushes them off when he sees Jill. For now to him, the pair had to be survivors Jill had ran into while getting the station back online.

"Nice job, supercop. I'm impressed." Carlos said to Jill.

"With a little help." Jill adds, shooting grateful looks to Byleth and Isadora before looking back to Carlos. "We back in business?"

"Yeah, mostly. But we need 30 to 40 minutes to finish maintenance." Carlos tells her. Then he looks over to Byleth and Isadora as they were just standing by. Byleth beside Jill, while Isadora was keeping her distance from him which might be understandable now that Jill knows a little about her involvement with Umbrella. Well more like... history with Umbrella.

"So who are they?" he asked.

"This man is Byleth, and the woman is Isadora. They were the ones who cleared out paths for me earlier, and helped me escaped from the monster." Jill said, introducing them to the man. Carlos shoots an odd look to Isadora, who only looked back with an unreadable look.

"Isadora? Why does that sound name familiar..." Carlos trailed off, which made Jill and Byleth tense up. Then at that moment, the shutters from the side slides up which made Carlos swiftly aim his Assault Rifle there out of reflex while the other three turned in the same direction. Turns out, it was just the man Jill had ran into back in the garage along with a new individual coming inside.

Unbeknownst to many, Isadora began seething at the white-haired man.

"Nicholai! How we doin'?" Carlos greeted, walking over to Nicholai and the dark-skinned man. So that's his name, Jill thought to herself as she stood her ground. After all, she has a bit of a bad taste with that man especially with her mind warning her to stay away from him.

"The town's crawling with those freaks. No chance of fighting our way out of the city." Nicholai said in his Russian accent. With Carlos nodding, Nicholai looks around only to set his gaze dead on the woman he ran into earlier. And also saw two more individuals he honestly did not expect to see.

"Why is she here?" Nicholai demanded, pointing over to Jill.

"She's helping get the trains running again." Carlos respond. This made the older man scoff, as he makes his way over to Jill with a look of disdain.

"Bad time to start carrying dead weight, friend." He started to say, and only stood two feet apart when Byleth suddenly got in front of Jill with his arm outstretched along with Isadora coming up beside the elite cop. "She's unreliable! Can't pull the trigger when it counts." Nicholai finished with a glare which made Jill return her own a little.

"Hey, take it easy." Carlos said to diffuse the tension that is quickly rising.

No one said anything for a moment, until Nicholai scoffs and steps back before settling his gaze on Isadora and Byleth. A glint suddenly flashed in his eyes, and uneasiness flared even more in Jill's gut. Because Isadora has the virus in her and Umbrella being after Byleth for a strange reason, Jill had a hunch in her mind that something is amiss.

Jill knows that any experiments Umbrella has done ended up as failures. The viruses mutates and turn people into unspeakable horrors, never the result many of the creators sought for. Overlords want the viruses to make their ugly visions a reality, to make humanity more superior. Viruses cannot give them that at this rate, with Raccoon City as prof of it.

Isadora... however.

Isadora bonded with the new virus, known as the G-Virus. If that is true, then perhaps the virus had given Isadora inhuman abilities as she had presented back there. To be able to sense the infected, and to be able to toss over that monster with incredible strength... the list of possible abilities could be endless. Perhaps there's a chance Umbrella might be chasing after Isadora since she was the only successful experiment.

Though strangely they haven't made their motive known right now. There could be a chance they're waiting for the right moment to strike and capture Isadora. For further research purposes.

Though Byleth... why is Umbrella after him?

Does Byleth have something Umbrella is after? Is it the weapon Byleth has, since that sword is no ordinary and radiating some kind of power?

Or is it....

**that Byleth has something in his body that Umbrella could be wanting?**

"I never thought I'd have to run into another freak as well. Fancy meeting you here... Project Isadora-G." Nicholai said casually, with a subtle smirk hidden out of view. This made Isadora want to move from her spot, wrap her hand around his neck and snap it. But she was refraining herself while eyes are set on her.

A mixture of bewilderment and confusion.

Dropping the subject, Nicholai turns to head on over to the subway train. Not without looking over to Carlos and added, "She'll get you killed."

He was referring to Jill, with Tyrell following after him. With a heavy scowl, Isadora averts her eyes to the side and crossed her arms. Carlos looks at Isadora, recalling the report Mikhail had said while Jill was on her way over to the substation. An experiment roaming around the city...

Isadora is that experiment?

"You're that-" Carlos began until there was a loud crashing sound from above.

All heads turned, and Isadora hisses under her breath. Viruses screamed powerful foe approaching, and obviously there's only one thing that could be prowling among the city. Besides herself of course.

"Nemesis." she said simply, much to their dismay.

"The what?" Carlos questioned in subtle confusion, looking over to her again with a quirked eyebrow. But Isadora ignore the question.

"I will drive it away. Jill, Byleth. Go to the subway train with Carlos." Isadora said, getting out her shotgun and cocked it, the clicks the gun gave out indicates its ready to be used. Jill turns and quickly pressed the button for the shutters to close down. She, Byleth and Carlos went behind until a thought occurred to her.

Isadora said the monster is programmed to hunt after her and Byleth. So there's a chance Nemesis would ignore Isadora and go after them instead. With the train needing 30-40 minutes to prepare, there's no way the train would be moving by then. They need more time.

And to do so...

Byleth had the same thinking as he looked back to where Nemesis is coming from, "That thing is after us..."

Isadora glances over, "Don't you dare-"

To the infected woman's dismay, Byleth pretty much rolled himself out from the other side and Jill followed his suit. Jill looks over to Carlos, "We'll buy you some time." She said to him, just as Nemesis showed his face from around the corner, and this made Isadora click her tongue.

_**'Change of plans...'**_ she thought to herself. She can't risk using her abilities the viruses gave her without hurting Jill and Byleth. Though, Byleth can use _that_ special ability of his but he hardly used it at all ever since he woke up in this world. He wasn't sure if its compatible here, that's what prevents him from using it.

She looks over to the hall Nicholai and Tyrell came from. Isadora sees it as their ticket of luring Nemesis away.

"This way!" Isadora said, gesturing her arm they broke into a run towards that area.

"Hey wait! Wait, guys! No! God dammit!" Carlos cursed, as Nemesis practically ignored him and pursues after the trio. Well... more like after Jill and Byleth, because that's all the advanced Tyrant is after.

"Come on, you creepy-ass stalker!!" Jill shouts as they ran and turn corners, basically taunting Nemesis. Emotions don't run through failed experiments, though it doesn't egg the monster either way. It pursues after them, as they climbed up the stairs and Isadora spots a generator sparking.

She made a split-second decision, since a Flash Grenade is a bit more effective.

"Don't look back!" Isadora warns, taking out her last Flash Grenade and tossed it after pulling the ring. She turns away, with Nemesis close to about hitting her when the grenade went off. It growled in discomfort, covering its eye as the trio retreated into a different room.

They basically ran to the back of it, and to their dismay there was no door.

"Fuck, now what?!" Jill questioned.

Byleth looks over and sees a yellow grate that is basically a ventilator of sort. "Should we go through there?" he caught their attention, as both women looked.

"No choice then." Isadora said, then lifted her leg to kick it the corner of it. It easily came loose and she yanks it out of there. Just at that moment, they heard Nemesis coming in with his heavy footsteps giving him away. Isadora pushes them together to go first, "Go, go!"

They didn't need to be told twice, as the mint-haired progenitor god went first with Jill following after him. She heard gunshots and this made her crawl a bit faster. From outside, Isadora cries out in pain when Nemesis punched her and collided into the shelf in front. Isadora regains herself, and seeing Nemesis about to break down the wall made her leap herself onto him.

Nemesis roared in slight surprise, staggering and moving around while thrashing to get rid of Isadora off of itself. Meanwhile, Byleth sees another grate from below, since the vent had curved downwards. Getting up and hunching over, he grunts as he kicks it to force it to become loose.

All it takes was two good kicks, and the grate went down with a bang. Then Byleth slid himself down and landed on his feet in a different area now. Jill come up in his view seconds later, when he looks up. Jill made herself sat on the ledge, and pushed herself off with a grunt and landed beside him.

With Isadora, Nemesis managed to grab her and tossed her against the wall which made her cry out in pain. While hunched over and panting, she looks over quickly and saw red barrels. A large shadow casts over her, and she looks up to see Nemesis about to punch her. She rolls away and steps back after scrambling to get on her feet, ignoring the throbbing pain on her back.

Taking out a dagger quickly, Isadora sliced her left palm to draw blood. Nemesis turned around the corner at that time. With a glare, Isadora then swipes her left arm upwards, and her blood splattered heavily onto Nemesis. Thanks to the Veronica virus, her blood burst into flames which made Nemesis hiss and stagger backwards. The flames then caught onto the leaking gasoline and an explosion occurred.

"Isadora!" Jill and Byleth shouted, when they both heard an explosion. Silence came by, and they feared Isadora didn't make it. Until they heard something crawling through the vents and when they had their guns ready, Isadora's face came into view.

She jumps down and stands up, "Come on, we have to keep moving!"

They nodded and ran over to where the other door is in sight. This kind of door isn't like the ones from above, rather instead its a vault door. Once everyone is inside, Jill closed it after her by pulling with all her might and turns the vault over to the right to seal it shut firmly. After a few turns, she lets go and pants from using her muscles.

Isadora looks around, and wrinkled her nose.

"Of all places... we just have to be in the sewers." she said with disgust. "I doubt a radio would work if we're this far down." she added, just when Jill grabbed the radio. The woman paused when Isadora said this, and puts it back on her belt to try again later. When they are above on the surface.

Isadora walks into the room that is on the left, and grabs several things she finds in there including the map. Walking out with Byleth and Jill waiting around, mild pain shoots up from her back which made her wince a little. The regeneration kicking in, getting rid of bruises and the cut that's on her palm from using her blood. With a crack of her neck, she walks after them as the two seemed to be in a conversation.

"You woke up in a chamber?" Jill raised an eyebrow. She was rather bewildered that the last thing Byleth recalled was falling down a cliff. No one should've survived from that, and yet Byleth appeared to be in one piece. Perhaps he was lucky, since it's rather rare but very unfortunate as well.

"Yes. Honestly, I wasn't sure how I got there and was stripped into a gown. To be honest, I was unaware where I am until Isadora broke me out of there." Byleth said, then cast his eyes to the side with a troubled look on is face. "That's when she revealed to me that I was here, in Raccoon City which is far from where I come from. ...Very far."

"How did Umbrella managed to bring you here?" Jill questioned.

Byleth opened his mouth when suddenly they all stopped when they heard a sound from below. The sound they heard sounded like a bellow of a overgrown living being, and that's when they realized they aren't the only ones here. Isadora groaned, getting her Red9 ready for usage.

"This is why I dread sewers. Always a hot-spot for abnormal monsters." Isadora said, coming down stairs as along with the two.

"Do you... know where they are?" Jill asked her.

Isadora paused a little, and looks over to the left side. The murky waters, littered with trash, was flowing like a small river along the canal and there is a slope that leads downwards. She looks over to the door ahead, since the ladder is hoisted up as she spots an electric lock attached to it. Gears turned, and recalled that this area installed electric locks and that a battery pack will get them open.

She looks back to where the slope is, and through her eyes did her field of vision turned blue. She spots six red figures that looked like overgrown frogs with a tail, all in different areas. However, one occupies one of the areas while two are in the sewer pipes possibly moving around looking for prey. Her vision returned normal as she turned back to Jill and Byleth.

"Half of them are down there; one occupies the path ahead and the two occupies the one on the right." Isadora said. "Other half are moving around scavenging so we don't have to worry about them... for now." she adds with a thoughtful yet cautious look.

"Let's get going then." Jill said, as Isadora nods and makes her way over into the waters. Jill seemed hesitant at first, while Byleth doesn't seem to mind and follows. Giving in, she does the same and the three slid their way down to the lower level. The stench grew from there, since there are more trash and other.... stuff there.

"Oh god... I'm definitely burning these clothes." Jill blanched, while Isadora picks up a grenade from one of the piles.

"Might as well endure it until we left the city." Isadora said, with an amused smirk on her face. Then looks ahead of the path in front of them, before looking over to the one on the right. "Let's go that way."

For some reason, uneasiness pooled Byleth's gut. He wasn't sure why, but the back of his mind was telling him the right path is a death trap. He was beginning to wonder why would his instincts think of that, since after all they would be fine either way. But his Ashen Demon side was telling him otherwise and that something bad would happen.

"But... wouldn't the front one be better? Didn't you say there's only one of... whatever it is occupying it?" Jill gave her a questioning look.

"It would be better to get rid of the one most infested, to lesser the chance of getting cornered." Isadora said, already heading there. Sighing, Jill follows after her. Byleth took hesitating steps, full of cautionary and his hand now resting on the hilt of the Sword of the Creator. His hand twitches, urging him to draw it and get ready for ambush.

At one point, Jill noticed Byleth was a bit far behind which made her stop in her tracks. "Is something wrong, Byleth?" she asked him, making Isadora stop in her tracks and looking over as well. Byleth looks Jill, opening his mouth until something large and pale caught his eye that moves from around the corner.

His emerald eyes went wide, seeing the monster opening its mouth with four tendrils with sharp teeth sprouting out.

"BEHIND YOU!" he shouted, making Jill and Isadora look and they stumbled back before the monster tried grappling onto them. The sight of it made his nonexistent heart race, he just wasn't sure why. But if he had to guess, that monster looked big enough to grab one of them... and gobble them up.

Then that means...

He snapped back to reality when Jill had stumbled in her step and the amphibian monster was getting closer to her. Choosing her to have her being its meal. Clenching his jaw, he draws his divine weapon and swings it, the blade wrapping itself around the mouth tightly making the monster squirm and trying to break free. He held on, pulling out his Matilda to shoot at it with Isadora following suit with her shotgun.

"Jill! Move!" Byleth shouts when Isadora was getting her grenade ready. The elite cop moved herself out of the way when she saw the grenade, getting close to Byleth as he released the mouth and retracts his sword. With a rumble, the amphibian monster opens its mouth again since Isadora is close.

She threw the grenade inside and jumped back. It closed its mouth and paused, feeling something foreign inside of its body which slid. Until the device went off, and a hole was made through its stomach and bleeding profusely. It fell onto its side, squirming before the tendrils splurges out and lays there motionless.

Nobody moved for a second.

"Is it dead?" Jill asked.

Isadora, sensing its dead, nodded but then sensed a live one from behind as she turned, her eyes wide. "GET AWAY FROM THERE!!"

Byleth and Jill turned, seeing another one behind and ready to snatch one of them. Byleth lets out a surprise noise when he felt himself being shoved away and heard a scream. He turns, in time to watch in horror as Jill was wrapped in the monster's tendrils and being brought closer within as she was crying in pain. She lets out one final cry before the monster chomps down and swallowed its meal.

"JILL!!!" Isadora screamed.

Shaking its body, the creature presses forward to eat two more until it was kicked on the side of its head by Isadora herself and slammed down to the ground. Isadora looked so enraged, as the professor watched her go on a rampage and growling out in pure anger. She was punching, kicking, and tossing the killer of Jill to slam it into the surrounding walls.

Chills traveled down his spine, as Byleth noticed that her normally green eyes are now crimson. The monster was wailing, both in pain and seemingly in fright while Isadora kept on torturing it with such brutal. Before he knew it, his vision began to morph as what he all sees, instead of Isadora, was none other than the lion prince himself, Dimitri.

Dimitri had acted similarly like this before, in one of his previous lives when he first guided the Blue Lions. He recalled Dimitri had once went on a bloody rampage when he himself got hurt terribly in his torso for preventing the prince getting injured. Dimitri had brutally attack and tortured the attacker and the ones near him, ripping limbs before he crushed their skulls into a bloody mess. Breaks their bones in various parts before snapping their necks.

Sometimes...

Dimitri would rip off a head from the body.

This was of course when he was still hunted by his demons, that blinded him to kill Edelgard and give tribute to his fallen ones. His family and Felix's brother being among them.

Now Isadora is like this... because Jill is dead.

Jill let herself get eaten... to save him.

Gushing sounds had brought Byleth back, and he was horrified to see the body of the monster reduced into a bloody and bruised up mess. The limbs of it was ripped, and he sees Isadora had cut open the stomach and had her hands in, blindly searching and not even caring about the fact she had her hands in bare and messing around the mass of flesh. Then she pulls out a bloody limp corpse of Jill, who is obviously dead from her spine being snapped in half.

_~_

_"Stop! Dimitri, that's enough!"_

_Byleth was shouting, running over to where his former student is. The crowned prince was too busy stabbing the corpse with his lance, over and over as the body is beyond recognized. With too many stab wounds, the flesh is apart and the organs were reduced in a similar fashion with blood spluttering, flesh torn off from the bones that would crack from the pressure. It was sickening._

_He reached the prince, and managed to grab his armed wrist, "He's already dead! Enough!"_

_There was a still from the person, before ripping his wrist from Byleth's grasp followed by a death glare sent over to him._

_The sole blue eye, once enlightened by earnest and life, dulled to madness and vengeance. Full of rage and hidden despair that he refused to show, along with the coldness that vexes all that sees it._

_Neither of them said a thing, until Dimitri breaks eye-contact to stand up and wander away without a word. Byleth was staring at him retreating, before looking at the messed up body with a sting of sympathy and sickness as he looked at the state it was in. No apology was uttered, but he gave the soul a bitter one in his mind for the way he had to go._

_~_

Byleth clenched his hands into tight fists, and eyes screwed shut at not only the vague memory that came to him but also at the loss of a companion. Just seeing the madness before him just had to give him that reminder, with the way Isadora reacted to the sudden death of Jill. Even though Isadora hasn't broken down, he could feel the immense sorrow from her and how deadly silent she was. So this is why going down this path was a bad idea... because one of them would be dead.

That could've been his death.

And yet Jill, who she hardly knew him, prevented that by using her own life as sacrifice.

A familiar pulse in his hand, which made Byleth look and sees the glowing light. He instantly remembers this, and looks over to Jill. He stared at her corpse, and narrowed his eyes. He'll fix this, there's no way he'll let her stay dead.

A pulse washes over him when he closed his eyes with a wave of familiar magic veiling him.

After several moments, he breathes and opened his eyes.

"But... wouldn't the front one be better? Didn't you say there's only one of... whatever it is occupying it?" Jill gave the calmer and emerald-eyed Isadora a questioning look. Seeing Jill standing there alive made a leap in his chest, relieved that he can still use it. That he can still rewind back in time even in a different world.

It was his first to use in this world, now that Byleth thought it through.

"It would be better to get rid of the one most infested, to lesser the chance of getting cornered." Isadora said, already heading there.

Not this time.

"I think it would be better if we head the other way," Byleth speaks up, which made Isadora pause in her step and look over to him with a raised eyebrow. So he continued, "Besides, don't you think there could be something useful that could help us kill the monsters here instantly?"

Byleth knows that Isadora, while she may not look like it, is a gun-fanatic despite her abilities. Sure, her favorite pistol is the Red9, but Isadora favors weapons that can easily kill something in one shot like a shotgun or a magnum. Plus, Isadora is not one to pass up the opportunity of ignoring a weapon that could help them out greatly.

Honestly now that he thought about it... she's like Felix and perhaps even Dimitri as well. Only difference is Isadora loving guns, not swords or lances. She lets the guns and her fists and legs do the talking.

And he's got her.

A flicker of interest and amusement appeared in her eyes, as Isadora turns and comes back. "Is that so? Well, you got me there." Isadora said, heading the opposite path instead. Sighing internally in relief, he and Jill follows her. They were only halfway when the aquatic monster slips out from the pipe and landed in front of them.

It was the one that killed Jill moments ago, possibly though since there's more of them. Well... in Byleth's case.

"What the fuck?!" Jill said in bewilderment.

"Get back!" Isadora warned them, already arming herself with the shotgun and shooting it away. Though it flinched on the monster, it stalks forward and opened its mouth to feast on Isadora. She jumps back when it tried to grab her with the tendrils.

"Isadora, toss the grenade in its mouth!" Byleth shouted at her. This made Isadora look at him and nodded, getting out her grenade while he and Jill were shooting at the monster. When it opened its mouth again, the Ashen Demon and the STARS cop moved aside when Isadora threw it into its open mouth.

It stopped for a moment after closing it, before the device blew a hole in its stomach which killed it. It fell back on its side and lays motionless. They used this time to press on, and finding a ladder leading up to the room on their left. They each climbed up and got in, and found more supplies.

And new weapon.

"A grenade launcher!" Jill was smiling a bit in glee, having the [weapon](https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.primagames.com/_resized/images/news/resident-evil-3-remake-mgl-grenade-launcher-location.jpg_1200x0_.jpg) in her hands when she spots it resting atop of a table. She even found some powder meant for the very weapon in her hand, though she would need another kind or the same one to make some rounds. All it has is two flame rounds.

Isadora looks over to him, "You weren't kidding about it. We may could've ignored it if we went the other way."

_**'Without Jill that is...'**_ Byleth adds bitterly in his mind. He quickly brushed it aside, so he wouldn't have to remember the death scene of Jill over and over. Otherwise, he would have the urge to go kill more of them on his own so Jill wouldn't die again this time.

No way is he turning into Feral Dimitri #2.

"Anyhow, learned something interesting from this file." Isadora waves the papers in her hand that catches their attention. "Those monsters are called Gamma Hunters, and as amphibians they don't like fire. That thing we killed is a Gamma Hunter, and it looks like we'll have to kill them with fire." she added with a smirk on her face.

"Then it looks like this will help us out." Jill gestures the grenade launcher in her arms still, before going to strap it on her back over underneath her shotgun. This made the two form into an 'X' on her back.

"I could as well, but I might feel lightheaded afterwards." Isadora remarks, earning odd looks. "I can make my blood burst into flames, part of my abilities." she tells them, before she makes her way out of the room. This made Jill and Byleth glance at each other, both looking rather a bit disturbed.

-

They found a lab, and several powders that's for gun and grenade. Speaking of grenade, Jill found some rounds on the ledge after taking care of two more Gammas, and she loads them in the launcher. A green herb and a battery-pack, which Isadora decides to carry.

Retracing back, another one had ambushed from the pipes to which Jill decided to use her new weapon. When flames erupted on the body, the Gamma was shrieking in pain while it roasts the skin and body terribly and drying up its moist layer. Then it fell down on the side utterly cooked and dead.

"Ya know... frog legs are a delicacy." Isadora suddenly speaks up.

"You can eat frogs?" Byleth looked genuinely surprised and curious.

"Yeah. They kinda taste like chicken when cooked." Isadora nods while looking over to him.

"Please save that kind of talk after all of this is over..." Jill muttered, not wanting for the images of regular frogs to be soiled by the Gammas' legs. While she is no adventurous foodie, she does not want the Gammas to taint the image of frogs that aren't infected. And besides... they kinda sound disgusting right now.

With that aside, they moved forward and back on the main path where they originally came from. Upon seeing the ladder they overlooked, since it was hidden from their view when coming down the slope and going ahead, another Gamma leaped from the other side. Instead of Jill killing it, Byleth and Isadora tag-teamed; Byleth wrapping its mouth with Sword of the Creator and Isadora slicing her palm again and splatters blood on the head as her blood burst into flames.

It takes a few moments for the infected frog to be killed, and they reached for the ladder. Isadora climbed up last so her palm can heal up first before climbing up. It's not always a fun thing to deal with a stinging hand from the open wound, even if the viruses can get rid of the simple infections.

Walking up the stairs, they see a door with the electric lock and Isadora inserts it. She paused a bit and looks over to the door on the left, before looking over to Jill and Byleth. "Stay here." she tells them, before going through the door in front.

They waited, and even though a minute has passed they already suddenly heard shrieks through that right door. The shrieks of the Gamma, and suddenly something wet splattered to the ground. Jill and Byleth glanced at each other, and when they avert their attention to the side-door, Isadora emerges in view and unlocks it, swinging it open. That's when they noticed blood-stained hands on her.

"What did you do?" Byleth asked rather cautiously.

"I may or may not dismembered that overgrown frog. Tendrils to limbs before burning it." Isadora said rather casually with a shrug. That left a rather unwanted image in the pair's mind, and shudders of unease are their response. They kinda felt bad for the Gamma, since Isadora is basically a force to be reckon with.

Getting the battery-pack, they went into the area Isadora occupied and went to the room that needed it. They had seen the corpse of the Gamma, but Jill and Byleth were wise to not look in its way. In that room, they found another hip-pouch and some powders before they left and removed the battery-pack. They went over to the bridge, and see the ladder which they put down.

Once they are down, Jill inserts the battery into the one door that leads them out of there. Getting through and up the fleet of stairs, Jill picks up her radio to try contacting Carlos.

"Carlos, can you hear me?" Jill asked.

" _Jill! Oh, thank god! Everything OK?_ " Carlos asked from the other side.

"Yeah, we're fine. We lost him." Jill said, confident that they lost Nemesis this time. Although, Isadora knew more about that. If anything, Nemesis is a persistent bastard like any other Tyrants.

" _Great. The subway's ready to go. We'll leave as soon as you guys make it back._ " Carlos ended the call, and Jill puts away her radio. At this time, the trio turned around the corner and found a ladder leading up to the surface. They looked up, and Jill glanced over to them.

"Who's going first?" she asked.

"I'll go." Isadora immediately offers, already making her way up the ladder. Byleth follows after so Jill went on last. As Isadora was about to reach the top, the viruses suddenly screamed danger. Her eyes went wide when Nemesis suddenly hunches over in view and grabbed her by the head. Byleth and Jill widened their eyes when Nemesis pulled Isadora out and steps out of view.

"Isadora!!" They shouted.

* * *

**Did Nintendo name the guy Nemesis as inspiration from Capcom's Nemesis? Did they just randomly gave him that name and unaware of the existence of a monster that is also named Nemesis? Or just.... I dunno... 0.0"**


	6. Skirmish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are left with no choice but to face it

Byleth and Jill quickly climbed up, in time to see Nemesis holding onto Isadora by the head who was trying to pry off his enormous head. Seeing they weren't alone, Nemesis carelessly tossed Isadora aside, which made her grunt in surprise, with the pair rushing over to her side.

"Are you okay?!" Jill asked her.

The infected woman was about to respond when a large shadow nearly overcasts them. They looked over, and Nemesis stands in front of them. They now noticed the monster has something on its back, looking like a tank of full of something and Nemesis aimed a weapon at them. They see a small fire lit in front of it.

"Flamethrower!" Isadora shouts, getting up as she pushes Byleth and Jill to start running in the opposite direction from Nemesis. They hear him operating the weapon, and felt intense heat from the fire. But luckily they were far from being scorched up.

There were zombies in the way, precisely three so Jill head shots them while Byleth sliced off their heads clean while rushing their way inside a building. When they turned with Jill ready to slam the shutters down, they hear Nemesis calling out to them just as Jill was starting to lower it. She stepped back in surprise, when flames nearly scorched her and flickered through for a moment before it ceased for Jill to slam them shut.

"It can use weapons?!" Jill said in shock, as they ran up their way through the stairs.

"No surprise there, since Nemesis is more intelligent than your typical Tyrants." Isadora said with a humorless laugh, roundhouse kicking a zombie out of their way to continue climbing up another fleet of stairs. Right when they did, they heard a crash from below and Nemesis bellowing out 'STARS' as it kept spewing fire from its weapon. "Guess we have no choice but to face it head on, we just need an open area." she added.

"Roof it is, then." Jill said in agreement.

At one point, the next flight of stairs are blocked. So when they turned to the left, they spotted a ladder at the far end of the room. The only problem is, there is a large gap between the two areas and the planks leaning against the wall are their only ticket to get across. So Byleth easily tossed them down, and the planks are set in position on their own.

They rushed over and Isadora decided to abandon using the ladder and jumps up high, grunting when she caught the ledge and pulls herself up. Jill hastily climbs up first, and when Byleth was about to get on he heard a loud thump beside which made him look over quickly. Nemesis growls as he comes into his view, and looks over with his flamethrower aimed at him which made the mercenary climb up.

Fires licked at his feet, but luckily for him it did not catch him on fire. He joins up with Jill and Isadora since they were waiting for him at the top of the stairs and they ran up. Though after climbing the stairs, Jill lets out a surprised shout when a tentacle came in view with Nemesis grunting as he appeared right behind them from lifting himself up from below. He aimed his flamethrower, and they break into a run.

There is only one path, and so they followed it as the building around them started catching itself on flames because of Nemesis. Temperatures burned, even with their breathing becoming rather unbearable but they pushed it through as they leaped over a gap and turned for the ladder. They climbed up another ladder, and they kept on going and jumped over another gap.

But then when Jill landed, she shouted in surprise when the flooring beneath her gave away, and barely managed to grab onto the ledge which caught Isadora and Byleth's attention. Seeing her like this brought up the dread in the mint-haired man, so he went over to help.

"Here!" Byleth offered his hand which Jill sees and took it instantly, helping her pull up and managed to get back on.

"Thanks!" Jill said in gratitude.

"Come on!" Isadora said, already on another flooring from jumping up and not using the ladder again. Both climbed up to join her, and there they found more ammo and a herb. After getting them, they climbed up another ladder and there, they knew they reached the roof, hence the wide open space with stacked wood and a crate atop of one of them.

They jumped down, and looked around if they could find anything. But then Nemesis surprised them by jumping through the flooring form below, and landed diagonally from them. Nemesis turned after kneeling, and roared as he showed-case his flamethrower to them before dropping it at his side. Jill, Byleth and Isadora got their weapons ready to commence a fight.

**(I listen to this while reading it: Flamethrower Nemesis Battle Theme)**

"Alright, let's do this." Jill said, as Nemesis aimed his flamethrower to them. When flames erupt towards them, they rolled to the side to avoid getting burned. Jill fired her Samurai Edge at Nemesis through the head, though it hardly fazed the creature as Nemesis stalks over to her. She dodged out of the way when it tried to burn her in a horizontal swipe.

Then it grunted, when it felt a harsh cut from its back, even though the tank took most of it. This made Nemesis look over, seeing the progenitor god retract his sword back into its original state. When it turned, Byleth slashed at him again with the Sword of the Creator. Though Nemesis seemed to learned fast about the weapon's attributes, hence it grappled onto it much to Byleth's surprise.

Then it tugged Byleth forward, which draws out a surprised noise from him and the man was forced to fall into the ground. Nemesis then went to grab him, which made Byleth roll to the side and the monster thrusted his arm threw the floor. Nemesis went to hit him with his flamethrower, though Byleth still moved away from him and began firing his Matilda.

Nemesis shakes them off, and sets off his flamethrower that made Byleth retreat behind the stack of iron beams. Then suddenly, Nemesis staggered a little when something hit his tank. Isadora had managed to get close enough while Nemesis was preoccupied with Byleth and shot the tank. It turned while swinging the weapon, and Isadora ducked with fast reflexes before she performed a back-flip to kick Nemesis underneath its jaw.

Nemesis staggers back with a hiss, before Isadora kicked him in the neck which made Nemesis collide into the stack beside it.

Jill looks at the tank, and sees it looking rather agitated in color. A plan came to her, and decided to let it be known.

"Let's get rid of the tank! That should bring it down!" Jill shouted, before she ducked for cover when Nemesis after he recovered shoots flames at her. Then suddenly when she looked up, she saw that Nemesis had started to cast flames in the air, making it rain.

Jill runs out of there, seeing those flames were heading down in her area.

"Heard!" Both Isadora and Byleth shouted in response. They came into view as Nemesis seemed to be getting his flamethrower cooled from overheating. They aimed for the tank, and Nemesis was ready to fight again. But before it could, the tank exploded on its back. Nemesis was on flames, and kneels down with a broken weapon in front.

The trio lowered their aim, thinking that was it for Nemesis.

However, Nemesis raised its head up and grabbed the weapon before standing up.

"It's still kicking?!" Jill said in disbelief, before Nemesis dashed towards them and they managed to avoided his incoming attack separately. Basically Nemesis tried to slam them down with the broken part of the flamethrower. Though it wasn't just quick enough.

"Remember, Nemesis is a Tyrant! Tyrants are built to take a beating!" Isadora shouted from the other side. Seeing Nemesis turning its head towards her, she flinched and braced herself in a stance. With an enraged growl, Nemesis tossed aside its flamethrower before dashing towards her.

When in front, Nemesis threw a fist at her but Isadora blocked it with her arms before throwing her own. In return, Nemesis did the same and tried to kick her. She leaped over it and elbowed it into the back before punching the advanced creature away from her. She took out her shotgun and fires at it as Nemesis turned, before it staggered when its chest was hit by the bullets and purple smog had hissed out.

"A weak point?" Byleth muttered to himself, while Jill had found some new rounds for her grenade launcher, which are explosive rounds. When she switched them out for the new rounds, Jill cocks it and aimed at Nemesis after it recovered and once again locked in a combat fight against Isadora.

At one point when Isadora swerved to the side when Nemesis tried hitting her, Jill fired the explosive round. To her and Byleth's bewilderment, Nemesis suddenly stepped aside and the round flew past it which caused the monster to look over to them.

"Oh shit!" Jill cursed as Nemesis approaches them.

Isadora ran after the monster, but then Nemesis had quickly picked up the discarded flamethrower and turned while at the same time slammed her in the side with it. Crying out in pain, Isadora crashed into the blazing wooden stacks. With her out of the way, Nemesis continued to pursue its targets: Jill and Byleth.

Jill switched the grenade launcher for her shotgun, and fired at him as it was getting close with Byleth firing his Matilda. Though Byleth was more invested to aim for the chest, since he was sure that is the monsters weak point. The arc-reactor hissed from the abuse, though not enough to stop Nemesis in its tracks. So it slammed down the flamethrower and the pair ran out of there from getting hit.

Byleth then lets out shout when suddenly he felt something wrap around his ankle and was dragged towards Nemesis. He raised his Matilda but then Nemesis whip lashed the weapon out of his hand with its tentacle and grabbed his neck. Jill was firing with her Samurai Edge from behind before this happened, and while quickly reloading she glanced up and became horrified at seeing Nemesis hoisting up Byleth by his neck.

"BYLETH!" she shouted.

Byleth was trying to pry off Nemesis's large hand, while struggling to breathe. He watched while he tried to release himself, as Nemesis dropped the flamethrower again and raised its other hand. His emerald eyes went wide, when he noticed that Nemesis's attention was towards his chest and its free hand seemed to get ready to grapple something from him.

Then a migraine in his head, when Byleth felt the Sword of the Creator suddenly pulsing frantically and glowing brightly than normal.

_'NO!!'_ a familiar, female child voice screamed, sounding horrified and fearful in his mind.

Nemesis roared when something exploded on it from behind, enough to release its hold on the Progenitor God. Byleth scrambled himself away, coughing as he grabs Matilda that skids close to where Isadora is. He looks over, seeing Jill had used her grenade launcher with the explosive rounds before running over to him with a worried look.

"You alright?!" she asked him frantically.

"Yeah..." Byleth nodded, both turning their heads on Nemesis as it recomposed itself from being attacked. He was recalling the voice in his mind. He could've swore he had heard Sothis screaming in terror when that monster was about to-

....So his hunch was correct.

But how did they found out about it?

With a growl, Nemesis then ran after them with them getting ready to move out of the way. But then a kick from the side of the head made it stagger to the side before Isadora, who finally managed to get back in the fight, growled loudly as she grabbed its arm and tossed him over her to the opposite side. She leaped back and lets the monster get back up.

With a roar, Nemesis tried hitting her but then Isadora kicked it on the chest harshly with all her might. It stepped back before falling onto its knees.

" **STAAAARS....** " Nemesis said before falling over.

Panting, Isadora looks around and sees that the demolition building is about to get even worse with the flames still going on. "We have to leave, NOW!" she shouted as she runs over to the edge of the building with Jill and Byleth following after her. Just as the explosion began where Nemesis is.

When at the edge, Jill seemed to hesitate since there wasn't a safer way to get down. But Isadora and Byleth simply jumped over and slid down the slope so she decided to fuck it and did the same. While sliding down to where the platform is, explosions occur which made Jill cry out in surprise. Then they landed in the platform one by one in seconds.

They stayed still, gasping for breath while the explosion kept on occurring from above. Suddenly the chains on one side snapped, and Isadora fell down which made her gasp in surprise but managed to land in a predatory stance without hurting herself further. However, Byleth had used his sword to which it latched onto the edge that's above the platform while he was holding onto Jill, with his other arm that's wrapped around her, who was hanging onto him tightly.

Then it came loose and started falling. Isadora back flipped with her reflexes kicked in instantly, and the platform crashed on the ground. Panting, Isadora placed her hands on her hips eyeing the thing as Byleth managed to get himself down safely and puts Jill down, the Sword of the Creator retracting itself back into a sword again.

"You think that would be the last of it?" Jill breathed, while they were looking above them.

"Maybe." Isadora said, though she knew better. She turns around to leave the area as Jill and Byleth followed after her. Jill picks up her radio to contact Carlos, as they are walking down the streets that is packed with parked cars.

"Carlos, it's Jill. Do you read me?" Jill called.

" _Loud and clear. You alright?_ " Carlos asked from the other line with concern.

"Yeah... Bastard's dead." Jill said.

" _Good. Fuck 'im._ " Then there was a pause, since Jill sensed he had something else to say. And she was right, " _But what were you guys thinking, turning yourselves into bait? You and Byleth could've been killed. You should've let Isadora handle it._ "

"Don't start. We did what we had to do." Jill sighed heavily, not wanting to be scolded.

And quite honestly when Byleth overheard Carlos scolding him indirectly, he was left sort of annoyed.

" _I know. And, uh... thanks._ " Carlos awkwardly said his gratitude. " _The subway's ready to go. Hurry back._ " He ends the call and Jill puts away her radio, as they had reached a fire truck that had the ladder extended. Both her and Byleth didn't notice that Isadora was strangely looking to the side as that one particular SWAT vehicle.

"We should get to the other side with this." Jill said, climbing up.

Jill looks over, and then noticed something familiar about the street ahead. She stares, before she turns her head over to the right. Slowly, she starts her way across the ladder and Byleth and Isadora was following her. She didn't pay any mind, as Jill was staring at one shop in particular. A wonder came in her mind, if an old friend of her's is still alive.

Then the sound of gun-shot made her flinch.

Jill now noticed the zombies, which were previously alive and wandering, are suddenly on the ground with each of their heads split open. She looks behind, and sees that Isadora had her Red9 raised up, the barrel smoking before she lets it down to her side and back to looking at the building beside her.

Jill after reaching the edge, jumps down and the two behind did the same. Jill looks at the shop towards the end of the street, one that says 'Kendo's Gun Shop' in neon signs. She looks over to the right, seeing a familiar building that she hasn't been to for quite a while.

Raccoon City Police Station.

Jill looks back to the gun shop, "Okay. Let's head on over to the gun shop. If we have to head back to the subway station, we need to see if a friend of mine is alive so he can join us."

"Alright." Byleth said, as he walks over with Jill beside him. But then they noticed they were the only ones walking, which made them stop and look behind. Isadora is standing behind and looked like she refused to budge, as she looks over to the police department.

"Isadora?" Jill called out.

Isadora looks at them, then back to the police department. Jill wanders back over to her, with Byleth following closely.

"Isadora, we have to go. We can't keep Carlos and UBCS waiting." Jill tells her. Isadora looks at her from the building, before looking over to Byleth. Then she looks back to the elite cop, and shook her head.

"I can't." Isadora said, making Jill confused.

"What do you mean you can't?" Jill asked, not really understanding.

Isadora stayed silent for a bit, "You know that I was experimented in the facility, correct?" When Jill nodded, she continued. "Jill... I was there for months, right beneath this city. My mission to get the samples was in February, and there I was experimented on and locked in for a long time until right now. I didn't manage to break out and get Byleth out by myself."

Jill furrowed her brows, "Where are you going with this?"

Then it hits Byleth about what Isadora was about to say. It had been hours, and he had forgotten about why Isadora was released from the NEST.

Isadora paused for a few moments, and sighed.

"The researcher's wife, Annette Birkin, released me and Byleth." Jill became surprised by this, upon hearing one of the lead researchers of Umbrella that she was keeping tabs on. "Annette released me and will let me leave the city without strings attached on one condition: I find her daughter and she'll give us access to leave. She told me her daughter should be in the police station, since she's trying to get to her." Isadora continued, gesturing the station beside them before looking back to Jill.

Jill didn't know what to say. Didn't Annette work for Umbrella? Why in the hell would that woman help out Isadora and let her leave if she were to find her daughter? Wasn't she the one who helped Umbrella make Raccoon City into a hell-hole?

"You're trusting her?" Jill questioned her, narrowing her eyes.

"Don't get me wrong, Jill. I don't see her in the eye, not after what she and her husband had done to me. Though she told me Umbrella had betrayed them for the samples Dr. Birkin created, and her daughter is endangered by her own father when he apparently injected himself with his own creation." Isadora explained, keeping her voice firm and monotone.

"Endangered?"

"G monsters can reproduce, only if the host is similar to DNA. That's why Annette told me that her husband is searching for their daughter to implant the embryo in her body. I may despise her and her husband, but I can't let a child suffer from the problems her parents had caused as a result of creating G." Isadora tells her.

Byleth stepped forward, "You're leaving us, aren't you?"

Isadora looks over to him, and nods slowly. "I'm... sorry for this, but I have to do it. Otherwise if something were to happen to her daughter, Annette won't let me leave the city. If anything... that damned woman will be the end of me if I had one job."

Jill became silent, and nods.

"I understand. I'll let Carlos know when we get back." Jill said, and Isadora smiled bitterly. Then blinked in surprise when Jill detached her STARS badge and hands it over to her. She looks at her, who only smiled a bit, "For good luck."

Isadora slowly takes from her, then nods with a smile of her own. She pockets it, and looks over to Byleth. "Look after Jill, now that I won't be there to help you guys. And please... don't do anything stupid that'll cost your life, okay?" she said, giving him an appointed look.

This made Byleth shake his head, smiling in amusement. "I won't. You should do the same, or you'll disappoint the Ashen Demon."

This made Isadora smirk in amusement as well, "Okay."

She looks at them one last time, seeing Jill and Byleth watching her as she steps back and nods to them. Isadora turned and ran towards the police station where the parking garage is to let herself in. With the shutters in place, she kneels down and curled her hands on the bars. With a grunt of effort, she lifts it up and moved herself around and drops it with a loud clank.

Isadora then disappeared in the depths, with a mission in mind to commence.


	7. Infected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Isadora left the party, Jill and Byleth continue forth to the subway train station only for Nemesis to continue his pursue. A traitor is revealed, and the unexpected has happened...

"You sure he's in there?" Byleth asked once he and Jill are in front of the gun shop. Jill nods at him, before swinging the double-doors open while stepping inside. Within the shop, it looked like an absolute mess especially with no weapons and such left behind.

"He should be here, he is a gunsmith." Jill said, while she and Byleth looks around and finding leftover supplies for them to take. After adding another custom-part for her shotgun, she decides to head for the back. Though when she did, a person emerged around the corner swiftly with his own shotgun raised up.

This man is rather burly, wearing a yellow-plaid shirt and middle-aged. Short hair and sporting a beard on him.

"DON'T MOVE!" he shouted, which made Byleth grab his Matilda when Jill stopped him. Hostility wasn't needed, when the man noticed Jill right away. "Shit... Jill!" he said, quickly relieved to see a familiar face and lowered his weapon.

"Kendo, you're alright." Jill said in relief.

"Yeah, well, alright's a stretch." Kendo moves the two aside for a clear view, since his door was left open by them. He turns back to them. "Sorry I got a little jumpy there. Didn't know quite what to expect."

"No shit." Jill remarked, having flashbacks with the monsters such as the Gammas, the Drain Deimos, and Nemesis himself. Those were the ones that honestly took her by surprise. "Look, we're using the subway to get people out of town. You in?" she offered as she looked at Kendo.

"Subway. Well..." Kendo then drifted his gaze to the shed in the far back that's out of the shop. Byleth followed his gaze, and back to him wondering what's so special about it. "That's good thinking."

Apparently, Jill didn't notice this.

"When we get out there's gonna be a lot to do. We could use a man of your skillset." Jill continued on, with Kendo still gazing at the shed. Then at this time, that's when Byleth heard what sounded like a child coughing rather violently. This made him look back to the shed with raised eyebrows, and started connecting the dots.

This time, Jill noticed how off her old friend is. She placed her hand on his shoulder, which made him look back to her from looking at the shed. "What's wrong?" she asked in concern.

Kendo shakes his head dismissively, "Nothin'. Just uh... Just bad timing is all."

Jill raised an eyebrow at him.

Seeing she looked rather skeptic, Kendo began moving his way over to the shed as he began speaking once more. "Look, um... don't worry about me. I'm gonna make other arrangements. OK?"

Jill turns to watch him leave, "You better. You're the best gunsmith around."

"Oh no-"

"Don't do anything stupid." Jill said to him seriously.

"Oh that'sthat's your job, right? Take care, Jill." Kendo said while stepping backwards towards the shed. He opens the door and walks himself inside of the shed before closing the door behind. And even locked it as well, to prevent any unwanted visitors.

Jill was going to turn until Kendo spoke up through the door, "If you and your friend are heading to the station, take that service alley out in front of the shop, OK? The key's hanging on the wall."

While Jill wanders over to where the key should be, Byleth made silent steps over to the shed. He wanted to be sure if he had heard the child coughing right, and not his hearing senses playing tricks on him. Once by the door, he waited beside it for any more sounds to be heard beyond.

"Da...ddy...?" came a young girl's voice. It sounded so weak, and that made his nonexistent heart clench. That's when Byleth knew, that the girl had to be Kendo's daughter and that she must be infected. Turning slowly, but surely soon to be a zombie.

"It's alright, pumpkin, it's alright. That's a good girl..." Kendo responds to his turning child.

He moves away from the door, and wanders back over to Jill who was waiting for him. She gave him a questioning look. Perhaps Kendo didn't tell her the truth, out of fear that Jill would take his daughter's life if she were to find out she's infected. There's no cure, that is what Isadora said.

Well, there is but the cure would end up being destroyed. Thus making it extremely difficult to come across one in a necropolis city like Raccoon had become at this rate. Though it already is.

"It's nothing." Byleth shook his head, making his way out of the shop. Jill raised an eyebrow, but decided not to question it and follows after him with the key in hand. When reaching the alley, Jill used the key to unlock it as they stepped into the alley.

There was a shadow lingering in the lights around the corner, while there's a body laying against the mountain of trash bags. With the red herb there, Jill went to grab it only to step back with a startled noise when the zombie they thought to be dead started lifting itself up. Of course, Jill blew its head off while Byleth gave impaled the other that's ahead with a tentacle through it with his weapon and retracts it back.

After getting the red herb, they moved forward and turned around the corner, seeing the way around is blocked off. So they had to go inside the house that Jill recognized to be Kendo's place. She felt kinda bad for infiltrating his home, but they have to move around without having to extend time. There was another Nemesis-Alpha zombie there, and they dealt with it right away.

Jill checked the upstairs while Byleth waited for her as he is on the look out. He leans against the wall, wondering back to Isadora. Even though it had only been a couple minutes since she left them, Byleth still couldn't help but feel rather... bare. Like he is left defenseless and that the responsibility of guarding Jill, himself included, weighs heavily upon him.

Like the time he was responsible of keeping the students and the house leaders safe, despite having the ability to rewind time. And to ensure none of them died during the war... an actual war where death can take place any moment now.

This time though... it's different.

Nemesis was likely ordered to kill Jill, and to take out something precious within him. The bastards must've seen it while he was knocked unconscious in that lab. They wanted it to see if it could improve their research or make something else with it. Byleth knew that one wrong move... and he's done for.

Divine Pulse won't save him from it.

Jill won't be able to bring him back.

"All set." Jill called from upstairs as she was descending, snapping Byleth from his thoughts. He nods, and they stepped out of the house through the front door. They look around if the coast was clear, and they moved forward where they can see another alley.

But then something heavy and on fire crashed in front of them, making them step back in surprise. They see that it was a broken flamethrower, one that a certain monster had tried to kill them with. With that in mind, they turned back just in time to see Nemesis jumping down from wherever it came from while holding a weapon case before dropping it in front of it.

The case snapped itself open before the top was popped off. They couldn't see what it was until Nemesis picked it up and it revealed to be a large weapon as Nemesis hoists it onto its left shoulder and aimed it at them. They stepped back, as an orange aim-assist light appeared on them before turning around and broke into a run.

"A rocket launcher? Really?!" Jill said in disbelief.

"Isadora wasn't fooling around when she said its persistent!" Byleth said, before he felt the back of his hair standing and side-stepped as a rocket flew past him and exploded on the wall in front.

"No kidding!" Jill agreed as they turned around the corner. A zombie without arms was in their way, and they could've dealt with it until they heard Nemesis running after them from behind. "Ignore it!" she added and they rushed past it before the zombie noticed them.

It got blown to pieces thanks to Nemesis.

To the left side, the path is on fire so they briskly turned to the right. With Nemesis growling for not getting its way, they could hear him running up to them and had rolled forward when Nemesis tried to hit them in the back altogether. They kept going, and eventually heard his rocket launcher go off. Jill pushed Byleth to the right as a rocket flew past her and exploded on impact ahead.

Just after taking a few steps forward, Byleth ducked while he forced Jill to do the same as another rocket flew past them overhead and collided into the wall that surrounded the substation. Wait, substation? Then that means they're getting close to where the subway train station is!

Just a little far apart.

They turned around the corner as another rocket blasted on the police car that's in front. They watched the car being tilted upwards, before it started tilting down in their direction which made them roll away. At that time, the pair heard the radio signalling a call from Carlos. Perhaps he must've overheard the loud commotion despite the large distance.

They stand up as Jill picks it up.

" _Jill, you guys OK?_ " Carlos asked frantically.

"Carlos, that monster's on our asses again!" Jill responded loudly for him to hear.

" _Are you shitting me? I thought you guys killed it!_ "

"Jill, we have to go!" Byleth's warning made Jill look over, seeing that Nemesis had landed on a SWAT vehicle and had its launcher aimed at them. She ends the call there as they ran once more down the path ahead, avoiding the rockets that Nemesis sends in their way.

Then one exploded in front of them, which stopped Jill as she turns back to Nemesis who aimed at her. "Jill, come on!" Byleth hastily grabbed her wrist and tugged her forward alongside him as they ran towards the pile of debris that blocked their way. Nemesis fired his weapon, a rocket that is purposely aimed just little ways behind them.

They cried out in surprise/pain when the blast blew them over to the other side of the road, both rolling over over a few times until Jill is on her back with Byleth on his stomach. Jill looked ahead, wincing from the pain that coursed through her while trying to get up. Then she felt familiar hands helping her up, as Byleth managed to get her back on her feet.

"We have to keep going." he ushered her, and she nodded.

Rushing over to the stairs that's close to the wall and climbed their way up. There's a ladder, so Jill went up first before the progenitor god. The path led them to the roof of one of the buildings Jill recognized, where previously she stumbled upon here while following the bloody footprints of Isadora. The radio signals a call, and she picks it up.

" _Jill, you there? I think I know how to slow that fucker down. Head back toward the station!_ " Carlos said, with determination that is fiery in his voice.

"And lead him right to you?" Jill questioned in worry, as they were getting down the roof with the platforms and down towards the plaza, since the other way is currently burning in flames. Where Moon's Donut and Jim's Crabs are, the restaurant in front on fire.

" _It's OK. Trust me!_ " Carlos reassured before ending the call. Just when they started climbing up the stairs for the main avenue, Byleth felt his instincts warning danger and suddenly tugged Jill to head back. She was about to question him until she heard a rocket whistling through the air and something large coming undone from in front and something rolling.

They turned back around the corner close to the stairs, and had just watched a large head of the mascot from the toy store rolling into the donut shop, destroying it utterly. They rushed back up, and that's when they heard Nemesis landing behind them and roared after them, aiming its rocket launcher at them. They turned to the right as one missed them and exploded the streets.

In the alley when they turned around the corner, and hearing Nemesis running after them, they had seen Carlos waiting for them at the end with his Assault Rifle in hand.

"Jill! Byleth! This way!" Carlos shouts while running off to the right side. They followed after him and seeing he was running to what looked like a gas-station but turning toward the way back in the station. The explosion from behind made Jill trip and fall to the ground.

She looks behind, seeing Nemesis standing there with its weapon ready to be fired. She quickly gets up and runs to catch up with Carlos and Byleth. Nemesis followed as it stalked after her, but it didn't see the device that is placed just off to the side. It lights up in red, and when Nemesis stepped in the device went off and Nemesis collided into the vehicle beside it.

Jill turned with a surprised look, with the two men coming over to her.

"Hey, you OK?" Carlos asked. She only look at him quickly before back to Nemesis, as it was kneeling before raising its head at her and Byleth with an intense gaze. Seeing that wasn't enough, Carlos pushes her and gesturing Byleth to leave. "Go... GO!"

Carlos turned and fired his Assault Rifle at Nemesis, as Jill and Byleth got inside the building. The elite cop turned back to Carlos, "C'mon! Forget about him!" she shouted as Carlos turned to rush over to join them. Seeing the button, the progenitor god slammed his hand on it and the shutters began to descend.

Carlos stopped quickly and turned as Nemesis was walking over to them, and shoots the tank on the truck. When flames sparked, Carlos rolled his way in with the pair as the tank exploded and the shutters fully closed. Not without a large dent was made.

Jill helped him up, as Carlos recollected his weapon and looks over to them. He noticed that there's only them, and not the dark-skinned woman.

"Where's Isadora?" Carlos asked.

"She has some... errands to run." Byleth responded. Carlos eyed him a bit, then nodded without having to question any further.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here." Carlos makes his way over to the door on the right and down the stairs. They followed after him, and Jill decided to speak her mind regarding of Carlos. Though he may be working for Umbrella, Carlos had not once pulled anything dirty on him and only doing his job to help civilians.

It made her realize that not all people who work for Umbrella are as corrupted as the overlords.

"Carlos, I know we didn't get off a great start, but... thanks for the save." Jill said.

"Hey, you saved my ass first. You and your pals are a hell of a lot braver than me." Carlos said, looking back to them. Mainly at Jill, and this made Byleth raise an eyebrow before a sly smirk was made on his face.

He knows that kind of behavior. Before he was rather oblivious to advances but over time he began to realize what the cues meant in each lives he's been through. It was also something he had learned from his love interest, whom he had always stick with no matter which house he chose.

They were back in the station and began making their way back down to the subway train.

"Well, what matters is that we can get everyone out of the city now." Jill said.

"Yeah, you'll be safe." Carlos agreed, as they stopped in front of the shutters. He pressed on the button and awaited for the shutters to raise up fully.

"And you?" Byleth asked him.

"From the sound of it, I won't be catching the train." Carlos said. This made Jill look at him with a slight troubled look on her face.

"Why not?" Jill questioned.

"There'll be new orders. If it means I can help the city, that's fine by me." Carlos simply said. Then gained a look of wonder on his face, "What kind of errands Isadora is doing? Heard from Captain that she was Umbrella's top-notch agent. Or used to be, based on the reports about her."

"You can call it a rescue mission of sorts." Byleth simply said, walking ahead after the shutters are fully lifted. Carlos glanced over to Jill, since Byleth seemed rather defensive about him questioning Isadora.

Jill simply shrugged.

"It's a secret." She said before following after the professor of the lions. Carlos raised an eyebrow before sighing, following them closely. They reached down to the station, where Mikhail and Tyrell are talking among themselves. Until Mikhail heard them coming, and turns around before coming over to Jill with an impressed look on his face.

"Good work. Your reputation is well-deserved." Mikhail said with a slight chuckle, before gesturing over to the train. "Get inside, you two. The subway is about to leave." He then turns over to Carlos and Tyrell, who had quickly shared a fist-bump while Jill and Byleth approaches the train to get inside.

"Carlos, Tyrell. You have your orders. You need to go back out into the city and find Nathaniel Bard." Mikhail tells them. Jill paused when a thought occurred to her, turning over to the men as Byleth stood beside her.

"This isn't the last ride out of town, right?" She asked them with concern. If this train was the last ride, then it would be hard for the rest of the survivors to be able to leave town without the use of the subway train.

They turned over to them, as Mikhail speaks up, "Do not worry. Once the civilians are safe, the train will be back."

"It's alright, you and Byleth go on ahead. I'm not gonna die on you, and leave you in a cold, cruel, Carlos-less world." Carlos said with a bit of a tease. This made Jill let out a smirk of amusement.

"OK." she said, shaking her head before stepping in after Byleth. Byleth was only at the entrance after he stepped in, before he paused when he overhears Mikhail speaking up once more.

"You need to find this scientist. His vaccine research could save us all."

Byleth blinked in surprise.

Vaccine research? Does this mean that there could be an existing vaccine somewhere in this city?

The sound of someone clapping snapped him from his thoughts, making him look over and spotted Nicholai sitting in the passenger seat. He looks over to him and Jill, with a slight smirk on his face. "You see? You're learning. The only life that matters is your own." Nicholai said to them.

Though to him, it would be wise words. But to Jill and Byleth, they were not. In fact, these kind of words are only shared by the ones who only cared about themselves and believed only the strong should survive. That's when Byleth instantly recalled the time Isadora had once said to him after they left the facility in the sewers.

_**"Be careful who you trust in hell-holes like this. Anyone, like mainly those who work with Umbrella, are only pretending to be like us only to show their true colors when their prize is just within reach."** _

Byleth is convinced that Nicholai is up to no good. And it seems Jill shared the same thoughts as him, but wasn't quite sure just yet. The man had yet to pull anything dirty on them. The pair heard Mikhail giving luck to Carlos and Tyrell before stepping inside with them, with his radio out.

"Let's move."

The doors slid shut, and the subway began leaving. Jill looks out beyond the window, watching Carlos and seeing him locking eyes with her. She sees him one last time as the train started heading its way over to another town.

**[September 29, 2:11 AM]**

Though it felt like minutes have gone by, Jill sat in one of the seats far from Nicholai and Mikhail as she watches through the window absentmindedly. Byleth stood close to her, while he seemed to eyeing something in his hands which Jill noticed when she looks over to him. She peeks over, and caught a glimpse of blue and something small.

"What's that?" she asked.

Byleth looks over to her, then in his hand before showing the item to her. Jill sees that it was a brooch in a diamond shape, having the design of what looked like a lion that's colored blue with a matching tassel. Rather small and antique looking, but Jill admits that the brooch looked like it costed a fortune.

"A brooch. It's something that my students gave me on my birthday." Byleth tells her, back to staring at the item. That surprised the woman, since the man didn't look like the type to teach people. Though it seemed to be really thoughtful of them, since Jill sees Byleth looking at it with fondness.

"Where are they?" Jill asked hesitantly.

Byleth seemed silent, before he puts it away in his pocket. "No idea."

Jill furrowed her brows. She could tell that Byleth is lying, and doesn't seem keen on giving her the real response. Why is he beating around the bush?

She opened her mouth to speak but a voice prevents her.

"You don't really think a pencil-pusher like Bard is still alive, do you?" Nicholai questioned Mikhail as they walked down the hall of the car with Byleth and Jill looking over to them.

"I have it on good authority." Mikhail assured him, as he takes a seat with Nicholai standing in front of him. After a second of silence, Mikhail continued as he raised his head to look at him. "Why? Are you worried about teammates? Or something else?"

Byleth and Jill glanced at each other, before looking back to them. Mikhail lowered his gaze, as the events of their mission was recalled in his mind. He wasn't so sure about it before, as it had took him by surprise. But when he thought about it... the assumptions are uncanny.

"Funny how brainless zombies can ambush a platoon like that. Funny the gate was locked." Mikhail looks at Nicholai with a look. "Don't you think?"

Nicholai simply looked at him, then coolly plays it off with a smile and a chuckle. Suddenly at that moment, the lighting in the car went off just as a crash was heard from them. The subway shook, as they all heard the civilians screaming from the other car, with fires burning.

"What was that?" Jill asked in surprise, quickly standing up while they looked over. She and Byleth walked over as Mikhail stands up as well as the door leading to the other car where the passengers are slowly opened. Neither of them noticed that Nicholai is stepping away to the far back.

When fully opened, they were bewildered to see that Nemesis is there and had carelessly tossed a corpse behind it. The remaining civilians that were there are dead from the explosion. The explosion that Nemesis itself had caused to climb aboard the train with the walls and ceiling blown off.

"How is this fucker not dead yet?!" Jill hissed angrily, storming over to deal with it until Mikhail grabbed her arm.

"Jill, no. They're gone. Come. This way." Mikhail gestured her to go to the other car as he gets his gun ready.

There's no way they could fight off Nemesis in a limited space like the train. Nemesis has the upper gain, thanks to its brutal hits and intelligence, while they only relied on weapons to survive. Byleth turns back to head to the other car, with Jill following close behind. But then a hand to his chest stopped him, making Byleth realize it belonged to Nicholai who was already on the other side.

"What are you doing?!" Byleth demanded.

Nicholai only looked at him and Jill, before shaking his head slowly with a smirk on his face.

"It's not after me." he said, making the two go wide-eyed. Nicholai chuckled to himself and stepped back, locking the door to let them be trapped with Nemesis.

"Nicholai!!" Jill shouted, pissed that he had back-stabbed them. Gunshots went off behind them, making them turn with Mikhail firing away at Nemesis. Then a tentacle pierced through his body, making Mikhail groan in pain as he was suddenly brought over to Nemesis.

Nemesis leveled the man to meet his gaze, while he glared at the monster.

"Get off my train, shitbird!" Mikhail said, positioning a bomb close to his chest while lifting his other hand that contains a remote. With no hesitation and using himself as sacrifice, Mikhail clicked it. A powerful explosion caused the car to separate from the others, but it caused the train to become derailed.

-

**[2:34 AM]**

Tyrell and Carlos reached to the west gate of the RPD. The long way over was silent, while taking care of a couple of zombies that blocked their way. Carlos thought back to the train Jill and Byleth had taken, wondering if they have managed to get to safety by now.

"It's been awhile. Subway's gotta be clear of the city by now." Carlos said as they stopped in front of the gate.

"Along with your hot date?" Tyrell questioned with a bit of a tease.

"Nah, she's not like that." Carlos quickly denied. Though when he said so, something within him was telling a different tale. He rather not want to get into that thought. "Hell, she's not like anybody." he added while Tyrell had the gate opened and swung it, as they stepped within the boundaries of the RPD.

"Alright, keep your head screwed on, Romeo. This is the police station." Tyrell said as he walked ahead. Carlos noticed there were graves in the courtyard of the police station as he was walking by.

"Uh, you sure. 'Cause it looks like a cemetery to me." Carlos said, looking over to the graves with poles stuck in each of them. There's like more than five, and it made him wonder just how many civilians had taken shelter in the station. Only for it to become infected with zombies as well.

There was even one where the bodies weren't even buried yet. Thankfully they were securely wrapped. Carlos let himself wander ahead and kept his gaze down the stairs. He was about to descend down the stairs, until he heard a commotion ahead of him.

"Brad! Stop!" 

Carlos snapped his gaze up with his Assault Rifle raised. He caught sight of a man making himself known in his sight, while seemingly stepping away from something. A zombie, obviously.

"T!" Carlos pointed over to the other way. Tyrell rushes over to the doorway that is boarded up. He body-slammed himself against it to break down, while the man from the other side stepped himself back near the entrance with a zombified Brad limping towards him.

This man is dark-skinned like Tyrell, wearing a police uniform with short black hair and a beard. This man is Marvin, who leads the police. Marvin has his pistol aimed at Brad.

"C'mon, man. Not you too!" Marvin said, firing at Brad's legs individually. When Brad was on his knees and slowly getting himself up, Marvin aimed his gun at his head with a sorrowful look on his face, "Sorry."

Brad looked at him, "So...rry..."

Marvin looked at Brad in silent shock, and lowered his gun. Not once had he ever heard a zombie speaking, when all they do is just hiss and growl. That became his mistake, because Brad then tackled him down and bit onto his right side that made Marvin cry out in pain.

He managed to kick Brad off to the ground, before hastily getting up and rushing inside the station. At that time, Tyrell managed to break down the boards that blocked their way and rushed over to the entrance door to get them inside quickly. However to his annoyance, the officer had locked the door behind him.

"Shit! It's locked!" Tyrell announced. Brad raised himself up, hissing at Carlos since he was the one within his sight.

"You stay on the door. I got this fucker." Carlos said, raising his Assault Rifle at zombie Brad.

Within the halls of RPD in the west wing, a zombie was dropped dead from the upstairs in the second floor. This zombie had its head utterly crushed, with bullet holes in the body. The person above flickers their wrist to remove any access of clotted blood.

Then a hiss was heard from behind her, making the woman look over and sees a new B.O.W. on the floor. With narrowed eyes, a familiar German pistol was raised to take aim and fire at the muscly-skinned monster as it hisses at her. That was until she caught a glimpse of something gold on one of the sharp claws in the left hand.

Squinting her eyes a little, she recognized it as a wedding ring. Though she can't help but feel like she had seen this ring before which is rather odd since many people owns a wedding ring, the same kind actually. But when she saw a small gem on it, she faltered and lowered her gun slowly in horror and shock.

There's only one person who would own and cherish that ring dearly....

Someone she hasn't seen for a very long time.

"....Penelope?"

"Where'd that cop go?" Carlos, after dealing with Brad and entering the station with his ID card, questioned while Tyrell is already typing away on the monitor on the desk.

"Don't know, don't care. We got a job to do." Tyrell said with carelessness. "If our intel's still worth a damn, then Bard's in the STARS office. Let's find him and take him into custody."

"Custody? I thought this was a rescue." Carlos said in bewilderment.

With a shake of his head, Tyrell had managed to bring up a map from of the police station. "Carlos, take a look at this." he said, as Carlos who was wandering around the main hall a bit wanders over to him and peers over his shoulder to look at the screen.

"I've located the STARS office. Remember, Bard had access to Umbrella's darkest secrets. He knows we'll try to keep him under our thumbs." Tyrell said, showing the map of the second floor of the station. One of the areas that read 'STARS Office' is highlighted if the label isn't obvious.

"So this 'search and rescue' mission is really more like 'find and detain'." Carlos said, now realizing they aren't really here to rescue Dr. Bard but rather detain him. "...Right. Good to know."

"I'll open the shutter so you can get through." Tyrell said while typing away at the monitor with his hacking skills.

"You stay here and find out what's been going on here at the station." Carlos said to him.

"Call ya if I find anything." Tyrell said, as Carlos started walking over to the shutters that started to rise up. He quickly glances over to his comrade, "Hey! Be careful."

With a nod, Carlos began his way over to the west wing. After all, STARS office is in this wing so he should be able to reach there in a nifty. When he came across a door after turning around the corner, he placed his hand to open it until he heard shouts and a gun going off which made him lean against the wall beside the door.

Carlos opens the door slowly, as he spots two officers down the end of the hall. One was screaming while holding onto his face, his blood painting the walls beside him while the other was shooting at something from around the corner. That's when Carlos heard the most ear-piercing shriek before what looked like a tongue wrapped itself around the cop's neck and dragged him out of view as the other fell down to the ground.

Carlos steps in, looking rather disturbed at what he just saw.

"What the hell was that thing?" Carlos said to himself as he takes cautious steps over to the fresh corpse. He looks at his face, seeing deep gashes there and looks over, chills traveling down his spine when the other cop had been pierced through his mouth by a curved pipe and hanging with blood spilling.

"Couldn't have been a zombie." he added as an afterthought.

There really isn't much to do in this station, she thought to herself. She may have got inside the station via through the secret passageway but still no luck finding the young girl. Her daughter is being rather difficult to find, but there's no way that'll slow her down. Though the better question would be where would she be hiding at this time...

All she's doing was scavenging and coming across with a key, which she later discovered to have unlock the door to the terminal locker room and found a battery in one of the lockers after inputting 106. She has no idea what to do with it though, but decided to humor herself.

She perked up when she heard gunshots in a different room. Isadora flinched when a shriek erupted from behind her, likely agitated from the sound and mistook it as new prey.

" **Sit.** " she commanded with authority. A hiss was the response, and the creature behind her stayed still at her command. Sighing, she decided to move up the third level and see if there's anything else she can find after scavenging the West Office.

What the hell was that?

While Carlos was gunning down the zombies in the hall, he had seen something large and red dashing across the window with a shriek. He has never seen anything like it, and he doesn't like it one bit at all. After getting into a room that has a weird door with a Heart symbol on it, he contacts Tyrell.

"T, you copy? There's something real nasty in here. I don't know what it is." Carlos reported.

" _Something nasty? Alright. I'll take a look with the cameras._ "

Carlos was about to leave to the next room, until Tyrell picked up the call again, " _Uh, Carlos? There's someone else in the West wing with you. I don't think it's that cop, so keep your guard up._ "

"Someone's here before us...?" Carlos muttered to himself in confusion. With that in mind, Carlos unlocked the door and stepped into the west hall. He was surprised to see bodies on the ground, heads crushed and some having them split open by a shotgun.

He checked the West Office and it was in the same condition. The room, which is the terminal locker, was in a similar state with only one zombie occupying it. Nothing to find that'll be useful, he steps out and stops dead when Carlos heard something feasting.

He slowly makes his way around the corner, and sees something in the distance close to the staircase. With his Assault Rifle raised and ready to fire, Carlos steps forward and the man was able to make out what it was. A monster, looking like the one he had seen earlier that scrambled across the window.

Though....

It looked **bigger**.

He kinda did a double-take, when the monster was feasting on its own kind.

"What the fuck?!" Carlos muttered to himself. The monster hissed and turned its head towards him, making him step back rather noisily and raised his weapon at it again. The monster turned, growling and stalked over to him. Before Carlos could pull the trigger, someone made their appearance.

"Sit!" came a familiar female voice.

To his bewilderment, the monster stopped itself and stayed still. Carlos looks over to the stairs, and to his surprised sees a familiar face.

"Isadora?" Carlos said, as Isadora walks her way down from the third floor. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Looking for someone." Isadora simply replied. "But I have yet to find the person I'm looking for. Since you're here, you are heading over to STARS office for Dr. Bard, correct?"

Carlos slowly nodded, while looking at the Licker beside her. Isadora noticed him being on edge, and simply gave him a subtle smirk. "Won't attack you unless I gave her permission. I still find it surprising that I could actually command it after that little incident."

"Her?" Carlos raised an eyebrow.

"Don't forget- monsters used to be humans such as this one here." Isadora said to him firmly. With a sigh, she reached into her pocket and tossed something at him. Carlos barely managed to catch it, and looked into his hand to reveal what looked like a detonator ready to be used.

"The way to STARS Office is blocked. You'll have to get through the showers to take as a shortcut." Isadora said, brushing past him as the Licker follows after her by ceiling like an obedient dog. Carlos turns around.

"Wait, where are you going?" he questioned.

Isadora stopped and glanced over her shoulder.

"I have other business to attend to. Be prepared when you blast down the wall, hope you got enough ammo to make you last from the horde." Isadora said before wandering off and disappearing around the corner along with the Licker. Carlos looks at the detonator.

"Alright then..."

He makes his way upstairs and when he reached second floor, Tyrell calls him.

" _Carlos, the STARS office is up ahead._ "

"Copy that." Carlos responds and walks down to the hall. To his annoyance, the path leading to his destination is blocked by tables and other things from the other side of it. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Why is it blocked? Guess this is what Isadora meant."

Now that he's seen it for himself, Carlos wanders into the shower room, and peers over to the left. There, the wall that separates this area with the other looked rather weak and on the verge of giving out. All it needs is an explosion for Carlos to get through for STARS office. He looks at the detonator and nods to himself.

Wandering over, he puts it up and inputs 3 minutes into it. Setting it off, the timer began counting down.

"Gotta move!" Carlos rushed into the stall for protection. Soon after he did, the detonator went off and the wall crumbled down with a gaping hole. Large enough for him to get through, and the tank was busted from the blast, so hot steam is piping out which prevented him from backing out.

Carlos was about to move onward until he sees that there's zombies there. So this is what Isadora warned him about.

He started firing them down one by one, as they were advancing over to him. He has no idea how many of them are on the other side, but he won't have any problem putting them back down to hell. "One at a time, take a number!" Carlos said, tossing a hand grenade to deal with the remaining crowd.

It goes off, and the zombies were blown to pieces.

He moves on to the other room, and no sooner after he did a Licker crashed itself in through the window. Now Carlos knows this one isn't the one with Isadora, since that one is bigger. This one is relatively petite looking, but still dangerous as hell.

The Licker shrieks and leaped itself at him. Carlos dodged out of the way and tossed a Flash Grenade. Set off with a bang, the Licker's hearing made it go wild and started swinging around while Carlos rains bullets to it with his Assault Rifle. By the time the Licker turned to him after its hearing recovered from the grenade, a bullet shot through the head killed it instantly and went limp.

Lowering it, Carlos heads over to his destination and made his way inside. Carlos looks around in case he isn't alone. There's no one in there, much to his relief. A sound from one of the monitors caught his attention, and barely did he see there was an incoming call from someone he was supposed to help out.

He rushes over, and clicks it to pick up the call as the screen showed up to reveal a room with that appeared dark at first. Then there's what appeared to be a man dressed in a lab coat standing off to the side, knowing this was the man Carlos was looking for along with Tyrell.

"Dr. Bard!"

The man in the screen glanced over, and scrambled himself in view with a look of relief.

" _Oh, thank god. Did you know how long I've been trying to reach somebody?_ " Dr. Bard questioned him.

"Don't worry, we're gonna get you out of there. Just tell me where you are." Carlos reassures him.

" _I'm trapped in a goddamn hospital, surrounded by every kind of abomination..._ " the researcher said, shaking his head before looking at Carlos. " _Look, just send in STARS. They're gonna know what to do._ "

Carlos shook his head, "Nah, negative. RPD's overrun too."

" _Then figure it out!_ " Dr. Bard started to rant. " _Umbrella's gone crazy! They're killing all the researchers!_ " While he was saying this, Tyrell had just entered the office which Carlos noticed from the corner of his eyes and sneakily gestured him to stay there while keeping his attention on Dr. Bard. " _I am the only one who knows how to make the vaccine to stop the zombies... so either you can sit there with your dick in your hand, or sendsend somebody who's capable of getting me the hell out of here!_ "

With that, Dr. Bard ended the call.

Tyrell looks over to Carlos, "I like him already."

"Yeah, you would." Carlos wanders over to him. "You heard what he said. We can't turn him over to the company."

Tyrell shakes his head, "That's not our call to make. That's Mikhail's call." Then he wanders over to the computer Carlos had been on previously to get to work, "I'm gonna check the computer and see if I can trace the doc's location. This'll take some time. So look around and see if you can find anything useful."

Carlos began looking around, and only managed to find some supplies. Like a First-Aid spray, more ammo from the case that required the ID card which he tossed aside after he unlocked the previous ones. Another hand grenade and flash as well. When he stepped into the other room with a desk separated from the others, he sees a picture and wanders over.

It's a photo of STARS units.

Carlos looks at each of them, and recognized the one with the yellow vest. It's rather a pity that he had been part of the best forces of RPD. He lowers his gaze a little, and sees a familiar face. "Is that Jill in the front row?" he asked himself, seeing Jill kneeling on the ground with a gun in hand in the picture.

He left the room and was about to leave until he received the call from someone he had recently wondered about.

"Yeah, what's up?" Carlos said, as he steps away from the door. He then furrowed his brows, "Derailed? Was anyone hurt?"

This made Tyrell look over to him, "Jill?"

Carlos nodded while he was waiting for her to finish speaking from the other line. "Ah, shit..."

Then Jill said something to him that made him did a double-take, "Wait, what?! ....Jill? Jill, what happened?! Jill come in!" There was no further response from the other side of the line, making Carlos growl to himself and began to make his way out of there. "T, I gotta go."

"Do what you gotta. I'll take care of Bard." Tyrell said, resuming back to the monitor as Carlos left the office.

-

**[Several minutes earlier]**

"You alright?" Byleth asked as Jill was coming around from the crash and using his healing magic to patch her up. Both of them looked pretty bad. Byleth's coat had been torn beyond recognition so the progenitor god had to take it off and abandon it after freeing himself from the train and the ends of his top was torn as well. Both of them looked pretty bruised up and dirt had caked their faces even more.

"Y-Yeah..." Jill said groggily, sitting up as Byleth stopped using his magic. "A-Are we the only ones who survived...?"

"It looks that way..." Byleth said, getting up and helping her get on her feet. "We have to go." he said, as he wanders over to the vault door that isn't far from where they are. Jill follows after him, while he was turning it to open it up and pushed it at slight ease as he stepped in.

In a room, they made their way further as Byleth sees something and went to get it. Jill picks up her radio before pausing, and puts it back away. If they are further from within range, then her only choice would be coming back up from the subway tunnels. She looks over, seeing that Byleth had collected a new kind of rounds.

"Are those... mine rounds?" Jill asked, and he shrugged since he is not familiar with modern weaponry. Jill then takes them, and pockets them in her pouches. Her mind was telling her that she's gonna need them for something drastic.

They make their way to leave the place, and entered in a different room. It looked to be an underground hideout, from where they are now. But that isn't important, so they moved forward though zombies blocked their way. It's always using shotgun for Jill and Byleth to sever their heads off with his sword or blasting their head with Matilda. When reaching the end of the hall and turning for the stairs, they see more zombies.

Jill ended up using a hand grenade to deal with them without wasting anymore ammo. They climbed up the stairs and found ladder leading them back up on the surface. Byleth went first, and climbed back on ground level as Jill followed up with him. Though as they took a couple steps away from the ladder, they heard a guttural roar ringing back underground.

"Still not dead." Byleth stated unamused.

"If that fucker's still alive, then we can't stay here." Jill said and they ran away from the ladder to get away from Nemesis. Though they had stumbled across some herbs, they took some along the way and reached over to the bridge. From there, an explosion caught their attention as they looked over.

Nemesis came into their view, though it seemed to be on fire and was stumbling around like a drunk person. Eventually it wasn't paying attention to its surroundings and fell over the railings, falling into the waters with a big splash. He didn't emerge after that.

"Bitch can't even swim." Jill said, which made Byleth almost snort.

Jill took a couple steps down the bridge, and picks up the radio to contact Carlos this time, "Carlos! Respond!"

" _Yeah, what's up?_ " Carlos responded.

"We didn't make it. The train derailed." Jill reports to him.

" _Derailed? Was anyone hurt?_ "

"Everybody's dead, other than Byleth and I. Mikhail. Everybody." Jill said to him.

" _Ah, shit..._ "

A faint sound made Byleth look over to the side. His brows became furrowed, when he noticed that in one particular spot where Nemesis had fell in was making ripples and bubbling up. And it was slowly making its way over to them, which had him step back and wandering over to Jill, hand on his Matilda.

"Nicholai left us to die!" Jill said angrily, still not noticing something was coming from the waters. Something that is obviously Nemesis.

" _Wait, what?!_ "

"Jill." Byleth called, getting her attention before following his gaze to the waters. She furrowed her brows as well when she saw what he was looking at.

"What the fuck!?" Jill said in bewilderment.

Suddenly, Nemesis leaped from the waters. It looked absolutely different from before, for it had grown bigger and now has longer limbs with bones making it have fins and such with shredded black materials clinging onto the exposed body. They managed to roll out of the way as Nemesis broke through and landed behind them.

"IT'S BACK!" Jill shouted and hastily putting away the radio.

" _Jill? Jill, what happened!? Jill, come in!_ " Carlos was frantically calling out, but Jill has no time to respond as she and Byleth made a run for it down the bridge with Nemesis running after them. Seeing a pile of metal made Byleth stop and used all his might to bring it down into Nemesis since it was catching up to them quick.

Nemesis faltered in its advancement as Byleth picked up his pace to catch up with Jill. The mutated monster shook it off and resumed chasing after them, as they jumped over the large gap. Nemesis extended its arm and slammed it down, which made them trip from the force and but managed to get back on their feet.

"Dammit, if only Isadora is still with us!" Jill panted, while Nemesis is getting hot on their tail.

Byleth opened his mouth to say something, but then glanced over seeing Nemesis about to leap at them.

"GET DOWN!" he warned as he and Jill fell to their knees when Nemesis jumps over them and turned sharply on its heels as they looked up at it.

With a snarl, Nemesis went to swipe at them with its clawed hand but they roll forward and avoided it. Quickly getting on their feet, they ran to the end of the bridge that leads them to the plaza in front of the Clock Tower and jumped over, landing on their feet. They panted quickly to catch their breath, just as Nemesis landed in front of them and lets out a loud roar that could be heard miles away.

**(Listen to this while reading: Nemesis 2nd Form Battle Theme)**

"Oh, come on!" Jill said as Nemesis went to slam them down with one of its enlarged hand. Both of them rolled off to the side. "Every fucking time, just leave us already!!" she shouted in frustration while raining bullets from her shotgun, before ducking when Nemesis tried clawing her and moved past her as she did that.

"Don't think it understands negotiating." Byleth shouted from across, getting one of his own hand grenade ready and tossing it over to Nemesis when it noticed him. It exploded right on its underside when it tried running past it, and staggered a little in pain.

"Very funny, Eisner!" Jill said, switching over to her grenade launcher and firing explosive rounds at Nemesis. She had seen that the shotgun alone isn't enough to stop it, she had to bring out the serious guns. Which is obviously a grenade launcher.

She fired another, when Nemesis crouched and jumps at her. Jill's eyes widen since she couldn't move herself out of the way in time and was pinned to the ground, with her weapon flung out of her grasp. Nemesis was about to do something she was dreading for it to do, when the Sword of the Creator wrapped itself tightly around its neck and was pulled backwards.

Nemesis snarled and bellowed in discomfort, as it was forced to loosen its hold on Jill making her move away while grabbing her grenade launcher in the process. With a grunt of effort, Byleth swung his sword downwards which caused Nemesis to be slammed into the ground and breaking the ground beneath its weight.

"Jill! The chest!" he shouted, making Jill look over and sees something had sprawled out of its protective layer. With a glee, she switched over to her shotgun and began firing at it while Byleth retracts his sword from being a whip before he flicked his wrist again and the pointed end struck into the weak point of Nemesis.

It caused the monster to jolt, getting up and roaring at him. It sounded pretty angry.

Nemesis started to run around the plaza and not once tried ramming itself into either of them. Then Nemesis went onto the cars and started running around again, leaping from one thing to another. This made Jill and Byleth get close to one another to watch each other's backs while watching it run around.

"It's acting like an animal!" Jill breathed, getting her grenade launcher ready to be used.

Byleth glanced over to her, and was instantly reminded of the rounds they recently found.

"Jill, can you use the mine rounds to stop Nemesis?" Byleth said, which made Jill look over to him. Then she about it remembered, as she quickly pulled out the mine rounds to switch them with the explosive rounds. Though while she was switching them, Nemesis had stopped running and stood atop of the roof that is part of the bridge they came from.

The progenitor god eyed him, seeing it prepared to pounce on them altogether.

"Shit!" Byleth cursed, as Nemesis jumped towards them with a roar.

His quick reflexes kicked in, and whipped Nemesis aside with his divine sword. Though the sword may seem feeble and not capable of striking down something as heavy as Nemesis at this time. Though it was more powerful than an ordinary weapon, it managed to take Nemesis down to the ground on its side.

"They're in!" Jill said, cocking the grenade launcher ready while Byleth fired away the weak point of Nemesis. Which might be its heart actually, but rather oddly looking.

"Good!" He responds, as Nemesis got up and started to run around the plaza again before on the cars and buildings. Jill aimed for the spot Nemesis was about to get to and fired the round, with the mind glowing in blue. When Nemesis landed on it, it exploded and the monster was thrown off to the ground with its chest facing them.

Jill tossed another hand grenade and it exploded with Nemesis roaring in pain. Back on its limbs, Nemesis glared at them in an eyeless gaze and roared again in fury. Jill gets her grenade launcher ready as she had started switching them over for the explosive rounds, and Byleth standing in front to get Nemesis away.

Nemesis ran towards them, and Byleth flicked his wrist as the sword slashed Nemesis to the side, which made Nemesis slide to the left. He does it again, whipping the monster that had hunted them down for quite some time while it was snarling from each hit. Like a master punishing a slave, though that isn't the time to compare Nemesis as though its a slave.

Even though.... it kinda is.

"Alright," Jill said, stepping forward with her grenade launcher raised. "Let's do this."

When Byleth stopped his charade, Nemesis then leaped itself towards Jill. But Jill pulled the trigger, and so Nemesis was dropped down when the round exploded on it, "Suck it!" she shouted at it, stepping closer as she was firing another round at the defenseless Nemesis.

When Nemesis gets up to try attacking once more, Jill fired another and the explosion caused Nemesis to walk on its hing legs before falling backwards. Right beside the entrance of the Clock Tower. They waited for Nemesis to move, as they were panting from the rush of adrenaline to survive. It never did.

Jill picks up her radio, "Carlos?! You still there?!"

There was no response, which her groan in irritation, "Oh, come on! You're gonna crap out on me right NOW? Goddammit!"

"Let's get going. I'm sure Carlos is on his way over to us." Byleth said, making Jill sigh and nod. They make their way over to the Clock Tower after gather supplies they found lingering in the weaponry cases. Upon getting closer to the entrance with Nemesis there, a dread feeling washes over Byleth. 

This took him back down in the sewers, when a Gamma Hunter had killed Jill. It made him look at Nemesis with a wary look, then over to Jill as she was slowly moving over the outstretched arm. He follows after her and did the same, though still the feeling deepened. Taking his gaze away, he walked alongside Jill.

Then Jill cried out in surprise and suddenly ripped from his side, which made Byleth turn to see Nemesis up from laying down. So that thing was playing dead the entire time. It grabbed Jill by her leg and started to drag her away. He fired Matilda while Jill was doing the same to get Nemesis to release her.

When it didn't work, Jill glanced up and sees the chains that held the gate up. Jill raised her aim and fired at it, causing the chains to become apart and the gate slamming down. In the process, it tore off Nemesis's left arm which made it bleed profusely and roaring in agony. Byleth helps her up.

"You okay?" he asked her, and Jill nodded.

"Come on!" she said, as they tried to get out of there quick.

But then Byleth heard something from behind. He turns his head over his shoulder, seeing Nemesis had grew another limb but this time it was a tentacle. Then it extended and the tip of it was on its way to-

Byleth pushed Jill aside abruptly which made her cry out in surprise, as he groaned in pain when he felt something had pierced into his right arm while they collapsed to the ground. Oddly, Nemesis retracts its tentacle and moves away as Jill gets up and sees something in Byleth's arm.

"Byleth!" she called out, as she frantically pulled out what looked like a barb needle. Byleth didn't respond, but started to cough violently and heaving. "Byleth!!" Jill was helpless as he kept coughing, his body seemingly going into shock with light foaming in his mouth.

That's when it clicked in her mind, and she started to panic.

"No... NO!! BYLETH!!" Jill screamed in despair, as she held onto him when the progenitor god fell limp. She did not notice that a certain traitor had been watching this silently, and grinned to himself evilly.

**[Roughly half a day later]**

Carlos was running through the Clock Tower, hoping he wasn't too late to help out Jill and Byleth. But upon reaching the entrance, he spotted Jill laying over Byleth on the ground. Alarm washes over him, as he ran over to their side.

"Jill! Byleth!" he shouted, shaking Jill. This roused her from being out, and raised her head to him. That's when Carlos noticed tear-stains on her face and realized something isn't right. "Jill, what happened here?"

"C-Carlos, it's Byleth! He's infected!" Jill said, which made Carlos look over to Byleth. That's when he realized Byleth looked rather sickly, his skin paler than normal and face scrunched up in pain. He lifts him up and was able to make out the veins that were visible.

Carlos presses his ear-piece, "Tyrell, do you copy?"

" _What's going on?_ " Tyrell asked.

"Byleth's been infected! I'm taking him to the hospital! Maybe Dr. Bard can save him!" Carlos reported frantically.

" _Alright, I'll meet you there._ "

Carlos then started to position Byleth to carry him on his back. Even though Byleth is around the same height as him, he was surprised the mint-haired man is quite heavy. He looks over to Jill, as she slowly got up and got rid of the tears that threatened to spill once more.

"He saved me from getting infected..." Jill said, looking highly ashamed of herself.

"Don't blame yourself, Jill. He was only watching your back." Carlos gave her a look, and she slowly nodded. Carlos glanced over to Byleth, "Hang in there, tough guy. We're getting you help."

* * *

**What is more dangerous?**

**Viruses, Magic, Crests, or Nabateans?**

**...Guess we'll find out later.**


	8. Race Against Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill and Carlos takes Byleth to the Spencer Memorial Hospital to treat him, with the rumored vaccine stashed away somewhere within. Time is ticking away at their side.
> 
> Meanwhile, Isadora has new company while undergoing her mission with obstacles coming her way.

**[September 29, 9:20PM]**

Jill opens the door of the Spencer Hospital and aimed her Samurai Edge around, in case of any zombies that could be lingering in the main room. There's none in this area, so she looks over her shoulder and gestures Carlos to step in as he walks in with Byleth still unconscious on his back. The pair rushed over to the room on their right and stepped inside, as Carlos made his way over to a vacant bed to place him down.

Byleth's face contoured into absolute pain, groaning while he was positioned to lie on his back. Jill had detached the Sword of the Creator and placed it beside the infected progenitor god. She looks over to him, as he was heavily breathing.

"Fight it, Byleth. We're gonna get you the vaccine." Jill said to him. Though Byleth never seemed to respond to her and kept grunting in pain, breaking into sweat, she moves herself away and left the room where Carlos awaited with her and reloading his Assault Rifle.

"So where's the vaccine?" Jill asked him.

"It should be with Dr. Bard, luckily the lab he's in shouldn't be far." Carlos said, as he and Jill started to leave the main room to explore the hospital. "If we can get the vaccine in time, Byleth should be fine. Though the main concern is if the vaccine actually works."

"I hope it does. I honestly don't think I could bring myself to put him down." Jill said with a look of dread. She was honest, since after all Byleth must have his students waiting for him to come home. Perhaps even a family, and what if Byleth is currently romantically involved with someone?

When entering another room, they see there are zombies occupying it. They turned towards them, when the two live humans had noisily grabbed their attention and began moving over to them.

"We don't have time for this!" Carlos shouted, as he and Jill started firing bullets at them. One by one, they managed to shoot them down in the room.

One zombie had burst in from the door, which Jill automatically killed it with her shotgun to the head.

"Of course the hospital would be the worst place to go." Jill said, as they entered in another room with halls.

In the middle is the courtyard, where not much can be seen other than the bushes and the tree growing healthy. Ironic since there's a virus going on.

"Well, we got no choice since we have a man down and in need of a cure." Carlos said, while Jill checked around the left corner. She was back within seconds holding what looked like ammunition of a weapon neither of them has.

Which is for the magnum.

They went to the opposite direction, and Jill sees something in the corner of her eye. She sees a case on the ground, near a body that seemed to be killed by something. It's no zombie, otherwise that body could've been standing around waiting for prey to feast on. She thought about the ammo she has, and wondered if by any chance a magnum is in there waiting to be picked up.

_**'But the better question is how to get it.'**_ Jill thought to herself.

They found another door, with a sign on the ceiling close to it that is saying 'Emergency Vaccine Research'. So they are little ways getting closer to get help. Passing through the door, there is a desk on the left that seemed to be a receptionist's desk with double-doors ahead. An intercom beside it.

_'Welcome to the office of Dr. Nathaniel Bard. Please state your business clearly into the intercom.'_ a robotic voice said as they went in further in the Emergency Research room.

"Sounds like he's not one to mess around." Jill remarks which made Carlos shake his head, while getting near to the doors leading to the lab. Jill eyes something on the desk, making her walk over and grab it to inspect it. It turns out to be a tape player, missing a tape.

"Dr. Bard, are you in there? We're here to rescue you! Open the door!" Carlos stated loudly through the intercom.

_'No voice match found.'_ the intercom replied.

" _Voice match_? What kind of sci-fi bullshit is this?" Carlos muttered to himself. "We're in the middle of a fucking apocalypse man..."

This made Jill look at the tape player, and wondered if this thing could help them out with the intercom. All they had to do is find the tape for this to play, and hopefully Dr. Bard was recorded in it.

The only problem is if Dr. Bard is really recorded.

"Open sesame." Jill heard Carlos say, making her look at him weirdly.

_ 'No voice match found.' _

"This is Nathaniel Bard. Open the door, please." Carlos imitates Dr. Bard's voice as best as he could.

_'No voice match found.'_

"Come on, let me in you piece of shit."

_'No voice match found.'_

"Hm, guess it has to be the voice of someone with clearance..."

_'No voice match found.'_

"Listen here, you little-"

"Carlos, we have to move on and find the tape." It took all of Jill's will power not to laugh on the spot, with a large smile beginning to show on her face. She has to keep telling to herself that they are in a dire situation, and that Byleth's life is on the line if they don't get him the vaccine right away. He is depending on them to help him get better.

Carlos moved away, "Yeah, right."

-

She never thought she'd ran into him of all places. That fucker that turned this city into a nightmare, though it seemed ALPHA team tried to take the samples in her place. Of course they failed, and she wasn't surprised that he injected himself with the virus thinking he'll be like her.

He should've known better than to not inject the sample into himself.

"Think that will be the last time we see it?" a new voice asked her, belonging to the person that stood beside her while they stared down to the darkness below.

This person is a man who is a year younger than her, owning sand-blond hair and blue eyes. He is wearing an RPD uniform, with a Matilda in hand and a shotgun strapped on his back. Also fairly attractive, but not enough to form any interest from Isadora.

This is [Leon Scott Kennedy](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wl1Ds9umoPk3bBohIjA21HPnoXw=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x800/filters:focal\(1354x331:1968x945\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63085321/z35arb0woqfqh4vimybc.0.png), a rookie cop and one of the two who wandered into Raccoon City for separate reasons. For him, it was to investigate what had been going after days of radio silence from RPD. The other was a college student searching for her brother since she hasn't heard word from him for months.

Stupid of them to walk into the city, Isadora thought to herself.

But they were unaware of the danger they had just gotten themselves into.

"I doubt it," Isadora said as she moves herself away from the edge. "If anything, monsters like that one can be very persistent until they get what they want."

"What do you mean?" another new voice asked, revealing to be said college student as she and Leon follows after her. A young woman with red-brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a red leather jacket over her black tank-top with navy blue jeans and black ankle-length boots. On her back is a grenade launcher that is an older model of the one Jill has, and in her hand is an SLS 60.

This is [Claire Redfield](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/3d/60/813d60df8372e24b89b5584271046088.jpg).

Isadora didn't say anything, other than looking up. "Hey, little girl? You can come out now, we took care of the monster!" she called out loudly, which made the two who are with her bewildered to be calling out a girl. Was there really someone here and possibly heard them dealing with that monster?

There was silence for a moment, until a young girl showed her face to them from above.

She has blond hair which is held back in a braid with side-burns free and blue eyes. She's wearing a blue-plaid shirt with white sleeves and a blue bow at the collar, along with navy blue shorts and black knee-length socks with white shoes. She even has a pendant around her neck, and an ID wrist that Isadora herself has as well, only having the Visitor's Pass was the difference.

This was the person Isadora was tasked to find and rescue, [Sherry Birkin](https://www.evilresource.com/images/entities/full/re2remake/sherry-birkin.png).

"Are you sure?" Sherry asked hesitantly.

-

"Bitch!" Carlos punched off a zombie that took him by surprise, while he was inspecting the door that is locked in place and in need of an ID card to be opened. The zombie, whom he thought to be previously dead on the stroller, had suddenly lunged at him and had Carlos not reacted quick, he could've been bit.

"You alright?!" Jill asked while taking care of another zombie with her own Assault Rifle, which she hasn't been using for a long time since this whole shit started. Packed up ton of ammo, so she decided now is the time to use them.

"Almost got bit, but fine!" Carlos said, head shooting the zombie on the ground that tried to bite him. He smirked when the head was split open by a single bullet from his handgun. "Oh yeah, still got it."

"Moving on." Jill deadpans, as they head to the door that is open and tread through after all the zombies are down. Save for the one that is behind the glass and trying to get through so they pretty much ignored it.

They found themselves back in the other side around the courtyard. The only path they could take was the upstairs to the second floor. They were heading over, when suddenly a body was dropped from above which made them stop and aim when it hits the stairs. They waited for the zombie to raise up, but it never did.

Jill wanders over to check it, and discovered the head was bitten off.

"Looks like something killed it." she said, as Carlos walked over and kneels down to inspect it. His eyes narrowed a little, and stood back up.

"Let's keep our guard up. That could be us if we aren't careful." Carlos said as he starts to climb up.

"Agreed." Jill follows after him.

-

Isadora is seething.

That fucking police chief took away Sherry, right when they are about to look for a way back into the station. Though first off, Sherry wanted to see her mother, poor thing wanted to seek comfort in a mother's embrace. But with Annette too focused on dealing with her own problems, she gave her trust to her to get Sherry to safety.

A part of her pitied for Sherry, and wanted to indulge her.

The other part was against it, and wanted to get out of the city quick. But she just have to give in, and Claire was also up to help Sherry find her mother. And when they reached the parking garage, the area where Isadora herself got into from leaving Jill and Byleth, Brian Irons the asshat showed his fucking face and forced them into submission with Claire's life on the line.

Isadora was even more pissed off that the fucker obviously knew about her, being William's prized experiment and even had the gall to address her as Project Isadora-G. Claire had decided to stick around to see if she could find anything in the parking garage, while Isadora and Leon went off to get Sherry back from Irons. Leon was pissed and wanted to give the guy, who was supposed to be his boss under normal circumstances, a piece of his mind.

Perhaps even a bullet as well.

-

Nurse's Station was searched around, and they couldn't proceed any further without the ID card from one of the staff here. To their annoyance, Jill had found a note that says Dr. Bard's research assistant took it from the locker room and brought it with him to the Treatment Room. Which meant getting to the Treatment room would require a key card, and their best bet is finding one in the Locker Room.

After scavenging in the Sick Room, after dealing with the zombies in all honesty, they left for the Staff Room. When they entered and got further in, they were greeted with a rather horrific sight. There's blood caked all over the place, and there are claw-marks on the floors and even on the walls. Bodies were on ground, and overall it looked like a storm had brewed in.

"Jesus..." Carlos breathed.

"I think I know what happened here." Jill said, while eyeing the claw marks on the ground. She knows she had seen them before, and it was giving her flashbacks to the time in Arklay Mansion. She couldn't believe those things are roaming around here. "I think the Beta Hunters did this."

"Beta Hunters?" Carlos glanced over to her.

"It's a reptilian B.O.W. that could easily kill you with a deep cut to the throat." Jill said, tapping her right side of her throat lightly, where the carotid artery is. "They could even cut off your head as well, if you get too close to them."

"Oh shit..." Carlos remarked, losing a bit of color on his face.

Jill spots a locker needing a lock-pick, which made her wander over to pick it open while Carlos made his way over to the door leading to the locker. He tried opening it, but was irritated to find it locked.

"Damn it!" He cursed, before seeing a note beside it. Carlos scans half of the page, and eventually sees that it also stated about the key to the very door in front of him had gone missing, said to be somewhere in the courtyard. Sighing, he tossed it aside and turns to Jill.

"The key to this door is in the courtyard." he tells her.

"Courtyard? How do we even get there?" Jill questioned with furrowed brows. But then she remembered about the windows that were broken on this very floor. "Wait a minute, we can get down to the courtyard through the windows that are broken."

"I figured as much. I'll see if I can find it, and while doing that you get to the other side through the space to the right if you can find something useful." Carlos said.

"Okay." Jill nodded.

-

Nemesis is one thing.

But to deal with a Tyrant itself is another.

It's almost laughable at the difference between Tyrant and Nemesis. While Nemesis simply wore black wrappings, drag you back to him with his tentacle, use weapons, have artificial intelligence and downright aggressive with his punches and kicks, Tyrant simply attacks with its fist. That's it.

Though with slight upper hand, Tyrant wears a bulletproof trench-coat.

Only common thing between Nemesis and Tyrant, is that they're both _annoyingly persistent_.

"Found one." Leon said, breaking Isadora's thoughts. She looks over to him, seeing him having a familiar orange box that contains one of the two items they need to get the door unlocked. There were just so many parking garage keys in the back of Iron's office, it's ridiculous.

Is he seriously trying to make the survivors suffer before leaving himself without one alive and just himself?

Irons is after the pendant, which Leon is carrying right now. Isadora knows why, because he is planning to take the remaining sample of the G virus with him, and pawn it for profit to the black market. Large amount of money, it disgusts her.

"Was it in the attic?" Isadora asked.

"It was, in the room that needed the Heart Key." Leon nods. Then a frown came onto his face, "What was that thing anyway?" he asked, referring to the Tyrant they encountered moments ago.

"Just one of Umbrella's failed experiments, and something not to be taken very lightly. That monster packs a punch more than the Lickers here and Penelope even, even though she was growing in size." Isadora said. Then added under her breath, "Though Nemesis is much more problematic..."

"Did you say something?" Leon asked.

"Nothing. Let's find another one." Isadora shakes her head.

-

Carlos jumped down from one of the broken windows, and is in the courtyard. He looks around for the key, and it's not in this spot. Though he did find a custom part for his Assault Rifle, so that's a bonus for him just like the one that's in the safe back in the Nurse's Station. He jumps over to the other side, and found the key.

He walks over and picks it up, "Alright."

He looks up, in time to see Jill coming from a different spot of the courtyard. Carlos sees something in her hand, and let's out a low-whistle, "You found a magnum?"

"Yup. Guaranteed to give you a headache." Jill said with a smirk that says 'jackpot'. "Did you find the key?" she then asked him, while strapping the powerful caliber to the side of her hip, opposite of her Samurai Edge.

"I have it right here." Carlos shows it to her. "Come on, we have to get back."

It takes a while for them to be back in the Staff Room. And so Carlos used the key to unlock the door and let himself in first before Jill. They opened each lockers to look for an ID card, even though they found ammo and a flash grenade. Carlos opens one of them and steps aside in surprise when a body was dropped out.

"How the hell?" Jill remarked, after seeing the whole thing from looking at the locker she just finished checking.

"Maybe that's why they locked the door." Carlos said nodding to himself, before checking the last locker. He was triumphed to find one, and takes it into his hand, "Alright, found the ID card. Now to head for the Treatment room."

They left the Locker room, and began making their way out of the Staff Room. When nearing the door, they were unaware that they have a visitor coming after them. Through the eyes of the beast, it runs quick and took sharp turns, before reaching over to the doors leading to the Staff Room.

When Carlos barely swung open the door, a large scaly yet clawed hand thrust itself into his view out of nowhere. Carlos stepped back with a surprised shout, and Jill immediately switched her pistol for her shotgun with narrowed as Carlos steps back even more and raised his Assault Rifle.

They watched as the door was then forcibly swung widely by a large imposing creature. It steps in with them, owing deep green scales with a hunched back and having a tail. One of the monster's hand is bigger than the one on the right, and has longer talons as well which intimidated them.

"Beta Hunter!" Jill breathed.

The Hunter howls at them.

-

A tour around the police station is nice and all, but they got what they wanted. Isadora and Leon are back to the back room of Iron's Office. Leon inputs the circuit blocks and began messing with them for the cords to light up and power up the door to be movable. After some time, there was a click and Leon makes his way inside.

Isadora follows in with him and before Leon could grab the Key Card, there was the ringing of the phone going off. Both of them looks behind them, seeing a white telephone atop of a table beside the lamp. With a scowl on her face, Isadora wanders over and picks it up.

"What is it, fucker?" Isadora hissed.

_"No need to be so angry, Project Isadora-G. We have some unfinished business."_ Irons' voice responded. When Leon heard him, his eyes went narrowed.

"Let me guess, you want us to bring you the pendant." Isadora said, looking over to Leon. This made Leon raise an eyebrow, before reaching into his pocket to pull out the pendant Sherry wore previously. He eyes it a little, wondering what's so important about a trinket like this one.

_"Straight-forward as always, as expected of Umbrella's top agent. You know the drill, bring the pendant to me over to the Orphanage. You know where it's at."_

"How menial of you. Using Sherry as hostage as we can give you the pendant. You must really want the sample, don't you?" Isadora said rather mockingly.

_"Watch your tongue, Project Isadora-G. You don't Annette to toss away your freedom if I were to kill Sherry, don't you?"_ Irons said, and she could almost hear him smirk. This made Isadora narrow her eyes even more. She was about to say something else when Leon took the phone from her to speak to him himself.

"Is Sherry alright?" Leon demanded.

_"...For now."_

"Touch her and I swear I'll-" Leon began to say angrily before sitting himself off when Irons ended the call. He slams the phone down, "Dammit!"

"We have to go now." Isadora said. "Standing around doing nothing would get us nowhere." she added, making Leon look over to her and nodded slowly. They left the room after grabbing the key card to make their way over to the Orphanage.

-

Treatment Room was a drag. After dealing with the first Beta Hunter, Jill and Carlos hurriedly make their way back to the Nurse's Station room to use the ID Card to get there. When they reached there, they had seen two more Beta Hunters lingering there, one just roaming around while the other is going down-town on a corpse. By down-town, the Beta Hunter was repeatedly slashing it away and spreading more blood.

Getting into the room, two zombies were dealt with and Jill unlocked the locker with her lock-pick, getting more ammunition for her magnum and a red herb. Carlos unlocked the other door, before he faces the one leading to the Treatment Room. Jill joined to his side.

"Okay, we need a plan since there's two of them. We barely survived with just one of them." Carlos said to her.

"Yeah, nearly took a chunk out of your leg if you hadn't wore those." Jill eyes Carlos' right leg, as it was missing a knee guard. It was a close call for him, when the first Beta Hunter tried going straight for a kill. Carlos managed to move himself out of the way, but was unfortunate to have his right leg lingering out too long and tries retracting it back before he was hit.

Carlos wasn't fast enough.

Luckily, it only tore off the knee guard.

"Alright, I'll toss a grenade in there." Jill said, holding up one of her spares. Carlos nodded and stepped back to get into position. Jill stands in front, and waited a second for composure. In a flash, she quickly pulled the ring and hastily opened the door wide enough for her to toss the device in with the Beta Hunters.

There were shrieks from the other side, coming after her. Jill closed the door fast, in time as the grenade went off as well as the pained howls. Then silence. Jill opens the door widely, and sees two bodies of the Beta Hunters on the ground dead.

They may have tough scales, but they aren't tough enough to protect the Beta Hunters from the explosion or a shotgun to the face. They walked in when coast is clear, and searched for the tape for the tape player. Eventually Carlos found it on the table between the beds and grabbed it.

"Alright, let's head back to the lab." Carlos said, and they left the Treatment Room. They decided to use the door they had unlocked recently and stepped out.

Jill then felt danger beside them and swiftly turned with her shotgun aimed and pulled the trigger.

Carlos turned, and was surprised to see there was another Beta Hunter waiting for them to come out. Luckily since it was a clear shot, the Beta Hunter dropped dead. Jill sighed, and went to reload the weapon while making her way over back to the roof.

"I'm beginning to think Isadora rubbed some of her tricks on me..." Jill said to herself, cocking the shotgun after it was fully loaded. Carlos shakes his head in amusement, as they stepped out.

After some time had passed, and dealing with more zombies in the Emergency Entrance and collecting supplies in the room they couldn't get in previously, they are back in the Emergency Vaccine Research room. They stood in front of the lab Dr. Bard is in, and Carlos holds out his hand.

"Tape Recorder."

Jill hands it over to him, and Carlos opens it up and inserts the tape. After that, he pushes the play button and holds it close to the intercom. Both of them stayed quiet, as the tape started to play.

**_"All I wanted to know was what the documents were doing in your office in the first place-"_ **

**_"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm goddamn Nathaniel Bard!"_ **

The intercom turned green, and the door is unlocked for them to get it. But both of them stayed still and continued to listen to the tape recorder.

_**"I'm the best biologist you'll ever meet, you bedpan-changing waste of a nursing degree. Of course I have connections higher up. Of course the military consults with me on projects beyond your comprehensions. So stop wasting my time with your nosy questions!"**_

_**"I... I-I'm sorry, Doctor."** _

_**"...You didn't read the documents, did you?"** _

**_"No, I shredded them just like you asked."_**

**_"Good... Good. If that's all, you can go back to wiping your patients' asses. That's what they pay you for, right? And polish my shoes."_ **

**_"Yes, sir."_ **

**_"I bet you know a lot about polishing, don't you? Now fuck off. And don't say a word to anyone."_**

The recorder ended there, and there was a brief silence shared between Carlos and Jill. Both of them were wrapping up based on what Dr. Bard had just treated to the nurse and how full of himself he sounded. He may of created the vaccine, but he is a bastard.

"Wow, what a douche..." Carlos said, as he and Jill stepped inside the lab.

It was relatively dark in there, and they looked around for any signs of the man in question. Jill turned around the corner to their right, and sees a man sitting there in the chair facing away from them. She knew this man had to be Dr. Bard, and so she slowly walked up and turns the chair around. Her eyes went wide, seeing a bullet hole in his forehead and then scowled to herself.

"Nicholai..." she muttered with a hiss, as Carlos came by and was shocked to see Dr. Bard dead.

"Oh shit..." Carlos then pressed his ear piece to contact Tyrell. "Tyrell! Bard's dead. He's been shot!"

" _Shit. And the vaccine?_ "

"We're looking." Carlos said, as he and Jill looks around tried to spot something out of place. They turned the place upside down, thinking Dr. Bard was concealing it somewhere within this room.

" _Well, look harder! There's gotta be a computer, right?_ " Tyrell said before ending the call.

"Carlos, over here!" Jill said, calling from the other side of the room. Carlos paces over, and sees the computer is on and has an email on screen. The email was about Nathaniel telling someone named Greg about the viral outbreak and pleading him to get him out of there, by bribing him with the vaccine to save him.

Then something caught Carlos' eyes, and types one the keyboard to expand the tab for him and Jill to see. It turns out to be a recording of Nathaniel Bard himself, just not that long ago.

_"This is VRC Chief Nathaniel Bard, September 29... 11 PM."_ Dr. Bard began to say from the video. _"I am acutely aware... that my time is running out."_

Nathaniel swallows his throat, before facing the screen. _"And I hope and pray by making this recording and_ _bringing the truth to light... that I can restore some small shred of honor to my name."_

Carlos adjusted his hands on the table, while Jill was holding her elbows. Both of them prepared for whatever confession Dr. Bard is about to share. Though Jill herself knew about Umbrella's schemes already, she is only prepared for what Carlos would think about this.

_"All of Raccoon City's suffering began with the release of a biological weapon known as the T-Virus. My employer, the Umbrella Corporation, engineered this virus... and they ordered my team to develop a vaccine, which we did. Now I keep samples of this vaccine here in my office. The rest of it is stored underground."_

Dr. Bard then suddenly looked to the side, and stared for a moment. Then he looks back to the screen.

_"But those sons of bitches on the board... they want to destroy it! They don't want the world to know what they've done... so they're trying to erase all evidence that the virus ever existed!"_

Jill clicked her tongue, "Typical of them."

Carlos glanced over to her, before back on screen. Dr. Bard then appeared to be in deep thought, before he sighed heavily.

_"And I have... another confession to make. It involves with the latest breakthrough Umbrella had made recently, before the outbreak took place. One involves the latest project known as Project Isadora-G and the discovery of an unknown phenomenon from a man that appeared out of nowhere, who I just found out that his name is Byleth Eisner."_

This caught their attention.

_"Project Isadora-G was created when one of the researchers of Umbrella had engineered a new virus called the G-Virus. This virus is said to be more powerful than the T-Virus, and this virus was injected inside a woman who goes by Isadora. The virus didn't make her an abomination, rather it bonded with her on a cellular level to the point she was considered to be superhuman! The virus gave her many abilities, and it also prevents her from being infected. Umbrella made themselves known they wanted to capture her ever since she escaped from NEST to further extend their research after they injected more viruses inside of her. Theses viruses are known as T-Abyss, T-Veronica, Chrysalid, and Animality. They even added the T-Virus as well to boot. With these viruses in her, they practically made Project Isadora-G to be considered impossible to kill!"_

Jill was left shell-shocked.

Isadora has five more viruses inside of her, with the T-Virus being one of them? Why didn't Isadora tell her that?!

Dr. Bard continued, _"The other, as I mentioned before, was a phenomenon that involves a man with mint-green hair that carried a strange weapon. This man, when he was brought in here in this hospital, was discovered to have no heartbeat._ No heartbeat _at all, even though he was breathing and very much alive! We ran an X-Ray on him, and there we discovered he had no heart to begin withinstead in the place where the heart is supposed to be is a stone with a strange symbol."_

Jill felt an incoming headache.

Byleth.... has no heart?!

But that doesn't make any sense, Byleth was just standing and moving and breathing and talking hours ago like a living person! Byleth looked very much alive! And a stone inside his body that acted as a heart?!

_"My team and I are very astounded by this discovery, for this was the first time we've ever encountered a person who doesn't have a heart and instead has a stone in place! We wanted to remove the stone from his body to investigate it, but we feared if we were to attempt then the man would be drop dead. So I performed a blood test on him, and later discovered that his blood wasn't normal. The test result came back, revealing that his blood is related to some kind of otherworldly being and having unknown strains in his DNA that aren't necessarily human!"_

Dr. Bard takes a deep breath, _"Then on September 27, hours before the viral outbreak, Umbrella came by and took the man from us. It was out of nowhere, but somehow they caught wind of the man's whereabouts and decided to take him over to the very same researcher that made Project Isadora-G. I feared that Umbrella had taken an interest in the stone in his body and wanted to conduct an experiment on it. If anything were to happen this man's stone, then we could be in mortal danger!"_

He looks to the side, then back on the screen. _"Now I'm not a fool. I know they don't want me to"_ Dr. Bard looked at the side again when this time, both of them heard an off-screen sound before he scrambled to end the recording. There was heavy silence at the revelation of Isadora and Byleth. Byleth mainly, since his origins was vaguely unknown to both of them.

Then Carlos looks over to Jill, as she looks over to him.

"...My god, this whole time you knew all along. And yet, you trusted me." Carlos said, the information sinking in to him. Jill opened her mouth to speak up, but stopped when Carlos straightens his back and suddenly punched the screen out of anger for being blind. "FUCK!"

No words exchanged for a moment, before the door to their right clicked open. They turned, and slowly made their way inside what appeared to be a storage room. Looking over, they see something purple glowing which made Jill wander over to the freezer and open it.

On the shelf is a vaccine in the injector.

She grabs it and placed it in her pocket, "Okay. We have to go back and give this to Byleth."

"Yeah." Carlos nodded after he cooled down. He presses his ear piece, "T! We got it!"

" _Good! I'm heading your way._ " Tyrell responded.

"Be careful." Carlos earned a small laugh from the other side.

"Careful _? Have you seen this town? It'll be a fucking miracle if I get there in one piece!_ " Tyrell responded before ending the call. After that, they barely left the lab when suddenly, a Beta Hunter came crashing down through the windows form the ceiling.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Carlos shouted, just as he barely avoided the monster trying to claw him. Jill fired her shotgun at the B.O.W. and when the Beta Hunter was distracted, Carlos took out his dagger and impaled it hard through the head. It shrieked in pain, before falling limp to the ground.

"Come on!" Jill said, after Carlos got his dagger back and they rushed over back to the room Byleth is resting. It took them five minutes to get there, and in time they burst through the room to see Byleth still laying on the bed in one piece. Save for the virus that is slowly eating him away as he was grunting in pain.

"You're gonna be okay, Byleth." Carlos said, putting down his gun and position him to lay in his left side. He started cutting up the sleeves with his dagger, while Jill takes out the vaccine and stood by. Once the arm is left bare and free from the sleeves, they see that the arm is much more paler than Byleth's face in general.

Jill wanders over, and positioned the needle on the shoulder before inserting it and pushing it down. The vaccine begin entering the veins of the infected progenitor god, and by the time the last drop is in, Jill removed the needle from Byleth as Carlos laid him on his back once more. They stepped back a little, watching him contouring his face in discomfort and groaned a little.

"Come on... this shit better work." Carlos said, while Jill simply stared in silent with her clasped hands close to her mouth. Almost as though she was praying for the vaccine to work.

**[September 30]**

Some time had passed, while they waited for Byleth to come around. They even used this time to rest from all the fighting and never getting the sleep they deserved. Suddenly the door burst open, making Jill and Carlos aim their guns in alarm and instinct to protect.

It was only Tyrell, and he raised his hand on them while looking like he ran a marathon. That's when they saw that his shoulder was bandaged up and bloody looking, as Tyrell went to sit down in the chair. Carlos stands up and wanders over to his only living comrade.

"Jesus. Tyrell. What the hell happened?"

Tyrell only grabbed a remote and turned on the TV.

" _Attention all citizens. The contagion spreading throughout the city has been designated uncontainable._ " This caught Carlos and Jill's attention as they looked at the TV, even though there's nothing on there except the words 'EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM' and only the words of a news reporter. " _On October 1st, Raccoon City will be completely destroyed in a missile strike. All residents capable of rational thought are urged to evacuate immediately. This is not a test._ "

...What?

"Missile?!" Jill said in disbelief.

"Man, that's only a day away. There's still people in the city!" Carlos shouted, as he instantly thought about Isadora and whoever she was looking for.

Tyrell looks at him, "You think Uncle Sam gives a shit?"

Suddenly they all heard commotion from outside the room. They looked over through the door, and Tyrell cursed under his breath as he turned and grabbed his Assault Rifle, "Fuck. Here they come."

Carlos placed a hand on his shoulder, "No, you sit tight. I got this." He turns his head over to Jill, "Mind giving me a hand?"

"Always." Jill nodded.

Byleth had been helping her, and protected her from getting infected.

Now it's her turn to return the favor.


	9. Defend and NEST 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill and Carlos fought off the hordes to protect Byleth as he recovers. As this was going on, Isadora and the other survivors escape separately from NEST as it threatens to self-destruct. When Byleth recovers, he and Jill make their way to NEST 2 to retrieve the vaccine.

**I'M BACK!!! LET'S FINISH THIS STORY!!**

* * *

" _I'm gonna try to lower the window shutters! The less entry points, the better!_ " Tyrell informs through Carlos' ear piece while he was stacking up crates and other heavy objects to block the room after he placed a board to prevent it from being opened. Meanwhile, Jill was getting herself loaded and ready to fight off all the zombies that are making their over here.

"And how do we do that?" Carlos questioned.

" _I'll try hacking into the hospital security system. Keep 'em off me in the meantime!_ " Tyrell informs, as the shutters began to descend down upon the windows. It was going at a slow rate, which meant Jill and Carlos had to keep them off for god knows how long.

But they are willing to go through it to defend Byleth.

"Here they come!" Jill shouted when she sees them already at the windows and trying to get in. Carlos just finished adding one final thing as blockage and quickly ran over to the desk for his Assault Rifle. The windows were then undone, one by one as mercenary and elite cop started to fire away at the zombies that climbed in and tried going over to reach them.

"I'll take the right side, you take this area!" Carlos said while moving himself away from Jill's side.

"OK!" Jill's voice echoed over the hiss and groans of the undead, as Carlos managed to position himself behind the desk. Though not without grabbing the detonator quickly.

-

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE?!" Claire shouted in rage while shooting her JMB Hp3 handgun at Tyrant as the platform descends them down to where the tracks of the train is. Tyrant was different, though only slightly since its top-half of the coat is torn off and revealed its muscly torso. Half of its face burned off as its right arm was reduced to having sharp bones sticking out and on flames.

"You got a problem with death?" Leon shouted as he and Isadora are dealing with a mutated [William Birkin](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/resident-hero-fanon/images/3/30/G4.png/revision/latest?cb=20190607130048), firing his upgraded Matilda with Isadora firing her Red9. Like Claire, they're battling on the platform as it descends down. Only difference is a minute ahead of where Claire is, and the platform contained the head train down, with Sherry within as she was free from the embryo of her infected father.

_"Six minutes until detonation"_

"You are a pain in the ass, did you know that William!!" Isadora hissed furiously.

-

While they were managing of killing the zombies off and guarded the door well, Carlos took a moment to quickly reload his Assault Rifle. It's a good thing he and Jill gathered and shared as much ammo as they can from the weapon cases here. When he was good to go, the lights suddenly went off.

Not only the lights went off, the shutters that were coming down suddenly stopped. The shutters were just barely halfway of covering the upper windows before the lower ones.

"What the hell?" Jill said, glancing up quickly before head shooting the zombies that were close to her with her shotgun.

"T, what just happened?!" Carlos contacts Tyrell as he killed off the zombies to his right before dealing with the ones in the middle. At that time, Jill fired the generators which stunned a handful of them before she lets loose an explosive round from her grenade launcher which killed them off.

" _There's a breaker! It must be somewhere!_ " Tyrell shouted urgently through the earpiece.

No sooner he said that, Carlos heard something trying to come out from behind. He quickly turned while Jill was getting rid of the zombies on both sides since he was quickly distracted, just as a Beta Hunter burst through the doors that were chained.

"You gotta be kidding!" he cursed, as the Beta Hunter hissed and tried to decapitate his head. But Carlos ducked in time, and the Beta Hunter only leaped itself over the desk as the man went inside the room and spotted a switch on the left. He quickly switched it on, and the electricity was back on with the shutters resuming coming down.

"FUCK OFF!" Carlos heard Jill shouting as he was quickly gathering the grenades and ammo in that room, along with the sound of a hand grenade going off and the shrills of the Beta Hunter echoing. He came back out and dealt with the zombies flanking his side.

It was complete chaos.

It blew his mind about the amount of zombies that are coming in and on the way over here in this god forsaken hospital. Carlos knew that the zombies are dumb as hell, but what compelled them to get over here since last time he and Jill checked, the surrounding area were empty. Free from roaming zombies, save for the ones inside of the hospital.

It's almost like the zombies were led here.

But Tyrell wasn't the kind of guy who would lead the zombies here purposefully. He was just on his way over after they found the vaccine for Byleth. Maybe the zombies followed after him after one of them bit him on the shoulder? But that couldn't be, it should only be a couple.

A thought crossed his mind, soon after he head shots two zombies in front of him.

Jill said that Nicholai left her, Byleth, Mikhail and the survivors on the train to die.

Could it be... him who had done it?!

"Beta Hunter!" Jill shouted, making Carlos turn swiftly as another Beta Hunter had leaped itself into the main room through one of the windows. Now that he sees the windows since Carlos himself was too busy dealing and killing, the shutters are almost down fully.

Just a few more minutes!

"Hey buddy, I don't recall giving you an invitation!" Carlos said while firing at the Beta Hunter. It turned its attention to Carlos when it staggered from the bullets going into its body. Which is a mistake since a familiar barrel was set beside its face and blew the face off. Completely.

Carlos sees two zombies making its way over to the blocked door, and quickly shot the generator beside it. Electricity spreads around and Jill kills them with her explosive rounds. Finally, after what felt like hours to them, the shutters closed off all the windows completely. But after a moment's rest, the front doors swung open after many banging from the zombies.

" _Carlos! Maybe you can knock the pillar down with that explosive!_ " Tyrell shouted, while Carlos and Jill were quickly dealing with the first wave of incoming zombies.

"Way ahead of you!" Carlos quickly went around the first pillar and plants the detonator. With ten seconds starting to countdown, Carlos moves himself away and situated to the back of the desk, "Jill! Make sure you're not in the pillar's way!"

"On it!" Jill shouted while tossing down a flash grenade. Blinding the zombies, Carlos from his position tossed out a hand grenade which Jill quickly moved herself away as it went off and killed the horde. Just in time, as the detonator went off, with Jill and Carlos positioned behind the desk, and the pillar cracked from the explosion. Then it starts coming down and when it hits the wall, the pillar cracked in half and blocked off the entrance along with the broken walls.

Complete silence hangs over them, with no zombies left in the room. Though the room was decorated in heaps of true corpses and blood caked all around the floor and ground. Carlos looks over to Jill, nodding to her, "Whelp... that was eventful..."

Jill nods with an amused look.

" _Carlos! Are you guys alright?_ " Tyrell asked through the earpiece.

"Not even close. But at least it's over." Carlos said, as he and Jill make their way over to the door. Though only half of the blockage was knocked down, the door was still in good condition. They did well, that's all it matters for now. "We're comin' back."

Together, they put down what's left in front of the door. Then Jill removed the board, as they quickly went inside the room. Tyrell had moved himself close to the bed that occupied Byleth still. He looks over to them with a smile of impress on his face.

"Vaccine's a real deal."

They look over to Byleth. To their utter relief, Byleth was no longer in pain while in his sleep but rather sleeping peacefully. The coloration back in his skin, and no longer producing sweat whom his body was trying to get rid of the virus within. Now, Byleth is free from the virus thanks to the vaccine.

"Oh thank god..." Jill said, kneeling by Byleth's side and laid her head against the mattress. It felt like the whole pressure on her shoulders has been lifted off, and it brought her so much relief and peace. Jill had been worried that Byleth wouldn't be saved and thought that they might be too late...

Her worries are for naught.

"Good." Carlos said, cocking his Assault Rifle and reloading. Tyrell looks over to his surviving comrade.

"You goin' somewhere?" he questioned him.

"You're damn right." Carlos said, making Jill lift her head at him.

"What do you think you're gonna do? The whole city's about to be microwaved." Tyrell said.

"C'mon, man. Call the government." Carlos began, turning towards his friend. "Tell them we found a cure. You stall time so that way, we can escape in time!"

"Wait, Carlos-" Jill started to say, standing up. But Carlos placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her.

"You stay here and make sure Byleth wakes up, no matter what happens. Besides, you have a word to keep for Isadora." Carlos said. Jill stared hard at him, then slowly nodded as she took a step back. With nod to himself, Carlos rushed out of the room to find a way out.

"Ballsy motherfucker." Tyrell commented, making Jill snort a bit.

-

_**The first thing he sees was a ceiling. When he realized this, Byleth immediately sat up in the bed with a startled gasp. He looks at his hands, expecting himself to be turned and no longer human than he wasn't to begin with. But there was nothing out of place.** _

_**Sighing, Byleth moved himself out of bed and looks around.** _

_**The room he's in looked to be about an infirmary. With screens, desk and counters and a small box-thing hanging up on the ceiling. It was displaying something colorful but not that it caught his attention. But there was something on it that piqued his curiosity.** _

_**There were words... but they seemed to be blurred out.** _

_**He makes his way over to see what it says, when the door to his right was flung open. Byleth turned sharply, only for his jaw to nearly drop and his nonexistent heart to become heavy.** _

_**"Professor! Oh thank the goddess, you're okay!"** _

_**It was a beautiful young woman with familiar light blue hair in a beautiful braid, owning brown eyes that are the shade of milk chocolates. She wore a blue dress, along with a short cloak draped around her shoulders that is held in place by a golden brooch.** _

_**It was the woman he hadn't seen for days, someone whom he holds dearly with much adoration.** _

_**"Marianne?" Byleth said as he nearly stuttered, while she was hastily making her way over to him and hugged him tightly. The action had him nearly stopped breathing, but nonetheless returned the hug.** _

_**But many questions run through his mind...** _

_**Byleth is in an unforgiving world infected by the viruses. Viruses that turn people into monsters that crave and feast on human flesh, much different compared to the Dark Beasts. Byleth was the only one there, as he was surviving alongside Jill and Carlos and Isadora.** _

_**How is Marianne here, through all this mess?!** _

_**"How are you here?" Byleth asked, separating the hug to face her. Marianne gave that smile, oh that sweet and beautiful smile he had loved so much from her.** _

_**"I found good people while I was looking for you. They had told me you had fallen ill, so I worried that you wouldn't recover." Then a soft frown on her face, "But professor... what has happened to this place? When I came here, the people here looked so unwell and not normal..."** _

_**Byleth opened his mouth to respond. But then he closed it when his emerald eyes lingered down and saw something dark that had stained her right side. Then suddenly, Marianne started to cough loudly and violently, hunching over while she took a step back from him. She even coughed out blood, much to his shock.** _

_**"Marianne?!" Byleth said, reaching out to help her.** _

_**Then he stumbles back when she suddenly lifted her head and hissed at him. Her skin had gone paler, and one of her eyes turned white with the blood coating her inner mouth. Byleth ended up collapsing onto his rear, and crawled away until it felt like he couldn't get back while Marianne fall onto her knees.** _

_**A thought crossed his mind with realization hitting him like bricks. One of his hands felt the familiar handle of his Matilda, making him grab it and aimed at Marianne while she was slowly making her way over to him.** _

_Shoot.... Shoot!_

_**"Pro...fessor.... I don't feel... so well..." Marianne croaked out, lifting her head to look at him. There was a hiss that she had unintentionally added in, and the finger on the trigger of Matilda gripped tightly but not enough to set the gun off.** _

_Shoot her!_

_She's not normal!_

_**"Please.... help me...." Marianne croaked, with bloody tears coming down from her eyes. At that moment, wails and screeches filled the room though he and Marianne are the only ones in the room. The room even turned red, with crimson liquid dripping down the walls and suddenly corpses of the people Byleth knew are there.** _

_**The corpses of his former students: Golden Deers, Black Eagles, Ashen Wolves and the Blue Lions. Even his colleagues from the Church of Seiros are there. Mercenaries of his band he had traveled with before becoming professor.** _

_**And is that...** _

_**is that his parents?** _

_TRAITOR!! YOU LEFT US TO DIE!!_

_WE'RE NOT EVEN YOUR FRIENDS! YOU TREAT US LIKE PAWNS!!_

_YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN THE GODDESS HERSELF!!_

_I TRUSTED YOU!! I TRUSTED YOU PROFESSOR!!_

_GIVE ME BACK MOTHER!!_

_BECAUSE OF YOU WE ARE DEAD!!_

**_Byleth's hold on Matilda's trigger slackened._ **

_**Marianne then growled guttural, with the humanity within her gone at an instant. With the instincts to feast on him, she pounced onto him and started feasting.** _

~

**[October 1st, 12:03 AM]**

Byleth shot up in bed in cold sweat with a loud gasp. He looks around the room wildly, seeing the room is free from blood and corpses and no Marianne in sight. If he had his heart still, it would be pounding furiously from the dream that left him shaken. Jill, who had taken a nap from watching over him, startled herself awake and looked over in his direction.

Seeing her brought ease to the progenitor god. But it wasn't enough to calm him down fully, as he held onto his Sword of the Creator that was laid beside him like it was his life line. It pulsed under his touch, as though it attempts to calm him down.

"Byleth, you alright?" Jill asked in concern, standing up to wander over to his side. She got worried if this would be the side effects the vaccine had given, when Byleth looked at her with glassy eyes. He managed to slow down his breathing rhythm.

"W-Where's Marianne?" he asked.

Jill gave him a confused look, "Who's Marianne?"

Relief washes over him. Byleth managed to calm down and sighed, moving around to sit on the edge of the bed he was on. Good, Marianne was never here with them, nor was she lost somewhere in this world. That's good, otherwise how the hell would he explain this to Claude once he returns to his world.

"Never mind, just a nightmare." Byleth said, standing up for what felt like days based on how weak to the knees he felt. But he shakes it off, since there's more important things to do. Then winced at the throbbing sensation on his right arm, which made him instantly remember about the needle that struck him.

He glances over, only to see a bandage over where the supposed wound is. But he also saw what looked like a puncture wound there. He looks over to Jill with a questioning look.

"You got infected by Nemesis, and so Carlos brought us here in this hospital to get you treatment." Jill responded, making Byleth blink. There was a vaccine available for him?

" _Attention all citizens,_ " a voice broke out which caught their attention. Both facing the TV which still remained the same as it was on screen. " _The missile strike on Raccoon City will occur in just hours. The payload is designed to eradicate all biological material. You will not survive if you remain in the city. Evacuate now. Repeat: evacuate now._ "

Wait, what?

Missile strike in the city?!

"How long was I out?!" Byleth asked, looking back to Jill with wide eyes.

"Two and a half days. Come on, we have to leave." Jill said, making Byleth strap his divine sword back to his hip and gathered his Matilda. They both stepped out, and Byleth nearly gaped in shock at the amount of corpses of zombies and two unknown creatures on the ground in pools of spilled blotched blood. Tyrell, from staring at the screen of the monitor in the table, looks over to them and sees Byleth standing.

"Morning, sunshine." Tyrell greeted to the mint-haired mercenary. This made Byleth look over to him, and then realized that Carlos wasn't with him.

"Where's Carlos?" Byleth asked.

"Crazy bastard went underground all by himself. Bard stockpiled the vaccine, enough to give the city some hope." Tyrell explained. Byleth gave a look to Jill, and she only shook her head since after all, Carlos prompted her to stay by his side since she was his partner. Well... in a professional term.

"Well since he thinks he can do this by himself, he's got another thing coming. Byleth and I will go after him." Jill said, as she started heading back to the doors leading them to the next room. She recalled that the way underground had to be that door she had unlocked which used up the lock-pick on her.

"Wait, the government is gonna blow up the city sky-high! I'm here trying to get ahold of someone, anyone with the clearance to stop it. Leave this to Carlos. He's a professional." Tyrell said to them, standing up from sitting down. Jill and Byleth looked at each other, then to him with sly looks.

"So are we." both of them said at the same time.

Tyrell raised his hands in a surrender gesture as he sank back down in his seat, "Right. Guess I'm not talkin' you two out of this. The storage facility is underground, beneath this hospital. I've lost contact with Carlos, so expect trouble."

-

There's still time, she thought to herself.

At the pace she was going, there's still time. She recalled the location of the second NEST that lies beneath Spencer Memorial Hospital. She knows where the helicopter would be at. She just hoped the others would be safe and eventually made it out as well. With perhaps minutes to spare.

-

"This must be the way underground." Jill said as she and Byleth stepped into a large basement room that contains cargoes and a vehicle. Many of them having the logo of Umbrella, clear proof that these people have affiliations with the high-esteemed pharmaceutical corporation.

To their left, there is an elevator platform that lead them down even further.

"If we're lucky, we might be able to run into Carlos." Jill said, while they make their way over to the platform. Once they climbed aboard, Jill went over to the control panel and pulled the lever down. The platform starts descending, as both of them stood by for their pit stop.

After a moment of silence, Jill looks over to Byleth.

"Why didn't you tell me about the stone in your chest?" Jill asked. The blood within Byleth became chilled, his eyes wide as he instantly looks over to the elite cop. Seeing the look on her face that she was on point for whatever reason, Byleth averts his eyes.

"Where did you hear that?" he questioned her.

"Two days ago, when Carlos and I were close to getting the vaccine. A doctor that made the vaccine recorded himself about Umbrella and confessing what they've done and...." Jill paused for a bit. "And about Isadora having five more viruses inside of her and that you have a stone in your chest that acts like your heart."

Damn it, so that's how they found out about the Crest in his chest. The doctor must have performed some kind of internal view performance and discovered it. Umbrella discovered it and brought him to a facility while he was still unconscious. And when he was gone, they ordered Nemesis to tear out his Crest for research purposes.

He finds it ironic...

His own version of Nemesis, the so-called King of Liberation that Rhea made up, killed Sothis by ripping out her heart and lapping up her blood to take her Crest before turning her spine into a weapon. Or was it his spine and heart? He wasn't sure of it yet.

And now this world's Nemesis was ordered to do the same. Minus drinking his blood and taking the Sword of the Creator to wield it.

Seeing Jill was waiting, Byleth shook his head with a sigh.

"It... was meant to be kept a secret. It's something that no one should know about, unless I decided to tell this to someone who I trusted completely. If anyone knew about it, it might endanger the people who are close to me and the things I could with it." Byleth explained, keeping his eyes ahead and not looking over to Jill.

Rhea's experiments are unnatural. Though she had only done it to bring back her deceased siblings who are dead by the hands of Nemesis and the Ten Elites. Though with the Crest within him, she was only attempting to bring back Sothis but each results ends up as failures. Only himself would Rhea considered nearly completed. Sothis only fused herself with him, never once taken over him.

Being a progenitor god made him an essential target to the Argarthans.

A moment of silence.

"Does Isadora know this?"

Byleth shakes his head, "I never told her. Though I have a feeling she knew about it, since Nemesis was after me for the stone." He then paused a bit when he recalled about Jill revelation about the infected ex-agent. "Then again, she never told me about her having more viruses inside her other than the G-Virus." he added as an afterthought.

Though Isadora had helped him out of the facility, there seemed to be an unspoken fact that neither of them trusted each other enough to share personal secrets. Sure, Byleth explained to Isadora where he came from and all while Isadora educates him briefly about this world and the advanced technologies and weaponry, but that doesn't mean both of them are comfortable enough to exchange dark secrets.

Byleth having the rewind time for only a little, and Isadora having more than one virus inside of her.

But they are only trusting each other enough to survive together. That is all between them.

"Though we are only strangers working together to survive," Jill began, as she looks over to him which made Byleth look over as well. "You protected me from getting infected."

Remembering that night when Nemesis tried to hit Jill with a barb needle, and that he shoved her aside and took it made Byleth almost wince at the pain he felt. Byleth always kept track of the pain he took that could've been inflicted on his students, in each lives he had with each houses and the church for trying to knot the ties only it never worked. He even had to reminiscence the pain of Sothis' heart being torn out once, and it was not a pleasant experience. Sadly though, none of them can ever compared to having the virus inside of him.

It was torturous, for it felt like the virus was burning him from the inside at an agonizing heat. Byleth had wondered if this was how Isadora felt when she had the G-Virus in her, only instead it bonded with her in the end. For him, Byleth knew he would be gone. Though he had wondered what would happen if there was no vaccine present and if the virus could make him be like Isadora as well.

No, highly unlikely.

Isadora mentioned the virus could only do that if the blood-type is the same like her's.

_...But could it be possible?_

"I reacted on instinct. Believe me when I say this wasn't the first time I've done that stunt." Byleth said. "Besides, Nemesis is after both of us, so it's only natural for me to make sure nothing happens to you." he added.

There was a slight smile on her face, "And I returned the favor as well. I made sure the horde doesn't get to you while you are recovering with the vaccine, not within ten feet." Then Jill looks ahead, as the elevator finally came to their next stop. Both of them stepped off to the opposite side, and were stunned to see there was actually a facility beneath a hospital.

"How is it that no one in the hospital ever noticed all this?" Jill wondered in disbelief. Byleth thought for a moment, since this was a wonder of why no one noticed this. Something about what Isadora said to him before came to him, and he spoke up.

"...Welcome to corporate America."

Jill glanced at him, then smirked a bit in amusement.

"OK. Makes sense." She said, while making her way over to the platform to their left. He follows after her, as Jill pulled down the lever for the platform to descend down for them. When climbed aboard, she pushed it up and they were raised to the upper level.

They stepped into a what looked like a warehouse, with large shelves containing items and packages and other things. There was even cargoes from what the eye can see, with platform elevators there as well. The stairs to their right was blocked off by tanks, so they went straight ahead to make their way down.

But then Jill looked to her right, and stopped dead in her tracks.

Byleth, noticing her sudden halt, stopped as well and looks over where she was looking at. His blood then simmered, seeing in what looked like a control room when he caught the silhouette of a certain traitor. Nicholai, and it doesn't seem he noticed their presence as he was appearing to be on something. But they couldn't see what.

"Let's get that fucker." Jill hissed, already jumping down with eagerness to kill the fool. Byleth jumps down as well, and noticed there were bodies laying close to the elevator platform ahead. As Jill was about to operate it, she gasped in surprise when the circuit panel exploded with the lights going out, revealing there was only one power plug in and missing three more.

"Jill!" Byleth paces over, as Jill steps off from the platform to look at the panel.

" _I must admit, I respect your tenacity._ " Nicholai's voice rang from the intercom, which made the two bristle just by the sound of his voice. Even though it sounded like he was mocking them. " _But I'm afraid our games end here._ "

"You think this is over!?" Jill shouted.

_**'Now how many times have I heard that before?'**_ Byleth thought to himself in amusement. Oh right, lots of times to the point Byleth lost count of them. He doesn't seem the point of it anyways, because they ended up being killed in the end.

"We should look for the fuses. If we separate after getting the first, we can get up there faster." Byleth suggested.

"Yeah, let's get going." Jill agreed.

When they approached to the control panel for the platform, something fell from above which made them step back in recoil. It was of course a zombie, but this one is completely different as it rises up to face them. There are no clothes and bare, skin completely pale with no eyes nor nose as well.

It limps towards them, and the elite cop pulled out her Samurai Edge to put it down. But the moment the bullets are in the body, there was a sudden smoke emitting from the wounds and the skin repairing itself. This made Jill pause while Byleth readies his weapon, "It can regenerate?"

"Guess option two is better." Byleth said before he made a quick swipe across and the head was sliced off clean. As it rolled on the floor, the body collapsed to the ground and blood oozes out. He swiped the sword again to free it from blood, "Either that or two head shots from the shotgun. Unless you want to shove a grenade in the mouth."

Jill looks at the body, then recounted the amount of ammunition she has left for her shotgun and hand grenades on her. She used almost all of her grenades, and still has a copious amount of shotgun shells. She decided to go with her shotgun.

They used the platform to take them up, and instantly they see their first power plug. Jill takes it into her hands and pockets it, before going down the ladder. Well, Jill did while Byleth decided to hell with the ladder and jumps down into a predatory stance. Byleth went to the other side while Jill tried to go for the path to her left. But then the cargo above suddenly collapsed down, making her stumble back in surprise.

Then she heard feet pattering on the ground, making her groan and took out her shotgun, as two zombie dogs came in view to lunge at her. One shot. First zombie was shot down, while Jill rolled herself to the side when the other was close to biting her shoulder.

Another shot.

That one is dead and laid down.

After scavenging in the open cargo, Jill goes to the path Byleth had taken before. There was a body laying down flat on the stomach but with the head nearly decapitated, she knew it was dead. The platform was still up and she looks around for a way through. She caught sight of the gap wide enough for her to squeeze through.

Jill shuffles to the side to get through, her hands up with Samurai Edge in hand in case enemies are there to ambush. Lucky there aren't any, so she goes up the stairs and heads into a door. Well the hisses of zombies made her quickly shut the door. Jill believed there's about four or five of them in there.

So she grabs one of her hand grenades. She pulled the ring, quickly opening the door to toss it in and close it. Zombies had rushed over to the door, and then the grenade went off. Huffing, Jill burst herself in with her shotgun raised. To her slight surprise, the pale zombie was still alive and crawling over to her.

She only aimed for the head and killed it with a shot.

One door leads to the safe room, so she went for the left one. To her utter delight, Jill sees another panel containing the second power fuse. Heading down to get it, Jill had only took two steps forward until she felt like something is about to jump at her. She took another, filled with caution, and at that moment a Beta Hunter had jumped over and leaped towards her with a claw raised.

But then a familiar sword impaled through the face and the Beta Hunter was recoiled to the ground. Jill looks behind, seeing Byleth standing behind her and retracts the Sword of the Creator into a sword again once the Beta Hunter was dead. With a sly smirk, he raised his free hand to reveal another power fuse.

"Last one." He said, making Jill breathe out a laugh.

She collected the last one, and they went back into the room Jill was in previously to go back to the elevator through the safe room. When they jumped down, the bodies that were laying down previously suddenly raise themselves up with their heads coiled in a mass of flesh and a tentacle wavering around to impale.

"Head shots." Jill said, taking out her Magnum and shooting them down one by one. The powerful weapon single-handed killed them instantly and the bodies were dropped down. They put the power plugs in, and climbed aboard the elevator with Jill pressing it to take them up.

When they reached the room, Nicholai was nowhere in sight.

"Shit. He got away." Jill cursed, when they stepped further into the room where Nicholai once stood. "What was he doing in here?"

"He can't have gone too far." Byleth said, as Jill spots something in the corner which made her kneel down. It was a case, and she opens it up as she smirked at the sight. A custom part for her magnum, which she took instantly and began attaching it to her powerful gun.

While waiting for Jill to be over with, Byleth sees that one of the screen is left one. With curiosity taking over, he steps in front of it and looks at it. He soon realized it appeared to be an unfinished activity log of sort. Could this be what Nicholai was doing while he was here?

He starts to read it.

**9/26**

**1300\. Infiltrated RC. Disturbances are sporadic.** **Commencing mission.**

**1930\. Observed five RPD officers engaging a pack 20 strong. Officers annihilated in 20 min.**

**9/27**

**1200\. Test run at university. Diverted pack (incl. canines) to campus. 64% infection and conversion in 2 hrs. No survivors**

**2300\. Successful rendezvous with MV Platoon. Will make first attempt at dawn.**

**9/28**

**0430\. Diverted pack toward command post. Result: night skirmish in confined area with large number of combatants (video attached).**

**0800\. End of skirmish. Seven survivors.**

**1800\. Unknown bioweapon deployed at Point D18. Tracking it per orders. It appears to be on the hunt.**

**2000\. Got eyes on two STARS: a male (infected) and female. Bioweapon is pursuing the female.**

Byleth stopped himself, and rereads the log again. Then his mind connects the dots, realizing the bioweapon term was referring to Nemesis. And that the STARS member, one being the female, is obviously Jill herself. Then he realized something even more at this point. He resumes reading it.

**9/29**

**0000\. Female JV has made contact with MV Platoon. Bioweapon's appearance and behavior are consistent with Project N.** **Sightings on a female and a male with an otherworldly weapon accompanying JV. Plausible the female is none other than Project Isadora-G and the male as Stone-Heart. Investigating.**

**0400\. Observed bioweapon wielding conventional weapons. Project Isadora-G nowhere in sight. It seems strongly fixated on terminating JV and Stone-Heart and knows the city layout. Evidence it can be imprinted?**

**0700\. Metamorphosis in the bioweapon triggered by a hostile encounter with JV and Stone-Heart (video attached). Stone-Heart has been infected and is non-responsive. Collected samples per orders.**

**9/30**

**0030\. Over 17 hours have** **elapsed since Stone-Heart's exposure to virus. Conversion has been slow, suggesting he may be resistant.**

**0400\. Vaccine recovered and administered to Stone-Heart by JV and CO, a soldier in MV Platoon. Stone-Heart expected to be fit for combat approx. 20 hrs post-exposure. It seems clear the bioweapon is Project N. Contact with JV and Stone-Heart causes it to change and evolve. Will induce further encounters to obtain more precise data.**

"So this whole time, he was watching us." Jill said, suddenly beside Byleth which nearly startled him but still kept on his stoic expression. He looks over, seeing a look of irritation on her face. "And recording the whole thing ever since Raccoon was in shits for a mission of his own. That damn bastard..."

Byleth looks back to the logs, and rereads the statement. A bitter smile spreading on his face, "Stone-Heart. That's a new nickname." Though it was an accurate one, since he does have a stone in his chest that acts like his heart. More specifically a Crest, but still a stone regardless.

A sound from behind made them turn sharply with respective guns raised. When the elevator was fully raised, the person on board revealed to be Tyrell himself who had his Assault Rifle up. He relaxed his stance when he saw it was only just Jill and Byleth.

"Jill! Byleth!"

"Tyrell!" Jill said, as she and Byleth lowered their weapons. Tyrell wanders over to them.

"I got through! They're willing to negotiate" Tyrell then groaned in pain, and leaned onto the panels for support. He looks over to them, as he ignored the pain that flared from his shoulder and now within his body. "They'll call off the strike, ifand this is one big-ass _if_...we can deliver the vaccine to them before they launched."

Pressure is now on their shoulders, the pair could feel it. That is definitely a big if. There's no telling if there can be any more vaccines left in the supposed facility in here. If they can't find one left out in the open, they have no choice but to leave the city. But they can't give up hope just yet.

"How much time do we have?" Byleth questioned.

"Hours, maybe." Tyrell responded, while making his way over to the door that was shut. Both Byleth and Jill wanders over to join him.

"Then let's not waste one more second." Jill said with determination. Tyrell began to input a code for all three of them to pass through.

"We'll find the vaccine up ahead." Tyrell said as the door slid open. He went in first and paced ahead, while Jill and Byleth followed after him with a slackened pace.

They were cautious if there would be any traps in here, but so far the coast is clear.

At one point, Tyrell stopped when pain flared up in his shoulder. He held onto it while groaning in pain. Both of them instantly noticed.

"Sure you don't need to stop?" Jill asked him.

"Stop and do what? I got your backs." Tyrell waves off, as Jill and Byleth walked past him before he follows after them closely.

"Then let's keep moving." Byleth said.

The door slid open for Jill as she peers inside first. She then side-steps her way out with her Samurai Edge aimed behind her, with Byleth facing the opposite direction of her. Both of them make their way down to what looked like the way to the facility, as Tyrell had his Assault Rifle raised with them. Suddenly something large was coming from behind, making Tyrell turn and sees Nemesis before he was smacked to the wall beside him.

Tyrell groaned in pain, catching Jill and Byleth's attention. They also spotted Nemesis as well, which astounded them since Nemesis hadn't bothered them for two days since Byleth was infected. What made Nemesis come back to try killing them again, was because the infection failed to kill Byleth. Even though, it was meant for Jill herself.

"Tyrell!" Jill shouted while the two fired at Nemesis. Nemesis only flinched and hissed while it remained immobile for a moment. Jill rushed over to help Tyrell up. "Keep going! We're almost there!" she said and not after take several steps, Tyrell screamed in pain when Nemesis had impaled him from behind.

"Tyrell!" the progenitor god shouted, when Nemesis had brought Tyrell in front of him. The man held onto the limb that pierced through his body, while groaning in agony.

"Go! GO!" Tyrell shouted at them, before Nemesis tossed him against the wall. Tyrell fell to the ground and laid limp, for no doubt that he was dead. Nemesis bellowed loudly at Jill and Byleth.

"Shit!" Both Jill and Byleth turned around and started running. Nemesis chased after them, and even though they were little ways ahead of the monster, Nemesis easily managed to catch up to them. Both of them ducked before it could hit them, and got up quickly while Jill slammed the button. When they rolled to the other side, Nemesis had leaped towards when the electronic gate slammed down swiftly.

Nemesis roared in fury from the other side.

-

_**'Almost there!'** _

-

"Is this a facility?" Jill asked, as they wandered into the corridor further. There was a doorway ahead, with another on their right but it didn't seem to open right away for them. A screen beside the door, in colored red and it seemed to be locked. Unlike the one ahead, and they spotted a corridor around the containers that leads to another level via stairs.

Jill looks over to Byleth, "Is this the facility you and Isadora escaped from?"

Byleth shook his head, "This one's different. The one we escaped from, with Annette's help, was the one connected to the sewers. I think it's called NEST. Though Isadora did say there was another one called NEST 2."

Jill 'huh'ed at that, looking around the facility. "Then this must be that one."

She then cocked her Samurai Edge, "Let's not waste a second. I don't know how many hours they've given us but let's try finding the vaccine as fast as we can."

"Right." the progenitor god nodded.

After quickly checking the room ahead, they went up the stairs for the other level. They moved around the corner, only it was a dead end with a journal beside a body and some ammunition for the shotgun. When they left, not without killing the two zombies that tried to attack them, they went into what could be a testing room. There were operator beds on both sides with technologies but neither of them stuck out.

While searching, the man came across what looked like documents on the bed that is close to the machine situated in the front of the room as Jill inspects it. Just a few words in, and Byleth realized this document was clearly talking about how to create the vaccine itself.

_**'Wait, so there aren't any samples left for us to take?'**_ Byleth thought to himself with a frown. If there aren't anymore in here, that means they have to make one on their own. He placed it down when he heard the machine speaking.

_'To begin vaccine synthesis, place the materials in the chamber.'_

" _Synthesis_? We have to make it ourselves?" Jill questioned, stepping away from the chamber and wandering over to Byleth. The mint-haired mercenary gestures to the document on the bed.

"The document says in order to make one, we have to get an antigen and an adjuvant. And we have to combine them to make a vaccine base and place it into that chamber to synthesize it." he explained to him. Jill looks over the essay, then to him with a nod of confirmation.

"Alright."

Something caught her eye in the back of the room, making her wander over to check it out. It was only what looked like a terminal, with a green screen displayed along with the picture of a USB and below are the words that said 'KEY DETECTED'. As she got in front of it, the voice emits from the terminal.

_'Override key successfully generated.'_

"Key, huh?" Jill said, curling her fingers around the red USB- or key actually, and pulling it out. The screen went red, as she examines the override key before stepping away She moves herself back to Byleth's side, showing him the override key with a small grin, "With this, we have access to the room below us."

"Excellent." a small smirk appeared on Byleth's face.

They left the room to head back downstairs, and eventually reached the door that was locked. Jill inserts the USB Drive in the slot, and the screen changed to green saying 'UNLOCKED' in the center. The door slid open for them, eventually showing them what looked like a room full of large black bags hanged above like meat in frozen lockers.

When they stepped in, something in the back of Byleth's mind warned him of danger immediately from their right. So he swiftly turned and impaled his sword into the revealed zombie's head. Jill looked over in surprise, before looking up when she noticed a shadow in the corner of her eyes, seeing a Pale Head coming down the stairs. She went to take care of it, while Byleth decided to flank the area further on ground level.

While he was doing just that, Jill kept shooting at the Pale Head since it kept smoking because of regeneration. Eventually, the smoking stopped which meant the Pale Head is dead. She climbed up the stairs further and came across a room which she went in. She had hoped one of the two, which is either the antigen or the adjuvant, are in there.

There are bodies laying around, blood caking the floor and walls. But that didn't divert Jill's attention on a vial, among others, filled with a yellow liquid inside. This made her step in front of the panel and started messing with it. The yellow machine moved and went to grab the filled vial, twisting the vial before turning and placed it in the slot. The vial was the transfer to her out in the open.

Jill grabs it, and turns it around. The label on it revealed it to be an antigen, which made her smile and pockets it, so that way nothing happens to it even if she were to boldly hold it out in the open.

"An antigen sample. We'll definitely need this for the vaccine." she said to herself, before stepping out and heading downstairs. She was only half-way, when she looked up and sees a Pale Head hanging by above where the other black bags are. She raised her Samurai Edge, only to watch the Pale Head having its neck wrapped around and pulled down, as Byleth then had its head torn off.

In sword form, he swipes it to free it from blood as Jill comes up to him, "Found the antigen."

Byleth turns to her and nods, "What's left is the adjuvant. There's a way down to the basement while I was taking care of the other Pale Heads."

"And you didn't bother going there?" Jill raised an eyebrow.

"I prefer doing what's called _Rout the Enemy_." Byleth sort of joked. Though he said it with a stoic look, Jill could tell that he said a joke which made her smirk in amusement. Because she knew what he meant was to kill every last one of them for clearance.

Treading through the room, they found the way Byleth had mentioned before and stepped through the door. They made their way down, though Jill had found a case that contains Acid Rounds before joining to the man's side while he was observing the large door. It appeared to be locked, which made him go further back in the area to find three large tanks. The left and right being blue, but the middle being red.

A gun-shot made made Byleth look over, seeing Jill standing close to a body that had the head blown off. Ah, he didn't notice the zombie was there. Although it would explain why his mind suddenly tingled of the possible threat that is right there.

"Think that should open the door?" Jill asked, looking over the power sources.

"Let's see." Byleth grabbed onto the yellow handle and starts pushing it in with his might. Though heavy as it is, it was no problem for him. So the power source was pushed in within five second, and the red had gone to blue. They heard a sound signaling the door is open, and they went over to the front door. Jill presses her hand on the scan, and the door opens up for them.

The room revealed to be what looked like an Incubation Lab.

On the left side, are tanks containing Beta Hunters. Though on the right, it contained humanoid monsters that sort of bore resemblance to Nemesis in sheer height but having pale grey skin and much more bearable to gaze. Though many of them have deformed parts.

"These are Tyrants!" Jill gaped in shock, as they tread down the path for the elevator platform ahead. Byleth said nothing, gazing at the Deformed Tyrants with wide eyes. A wave of nausea boils, as he was clenching his unoccupied hand as the memories of past subjects Rhea had created came flooding in.

Though he had never seen what the previous subjects looked like, but he knew for damn sure his mother was among them. It made him sick that any previous vessels that had the Crest would be deemed failures and garbage to Rhea, for not being able to bring forth Sothis. She would kill them, tear out the Crest of Flames and move on to make another. Though his mother, Sitri, had a frail body and not able to brought forth Sothis but her son could.

Close enough though.

"Byleth?"

Byleth didn't realize they had already reached the other side, until he heard Jill calling out. She was standing on the elevator, but not him as he was staring at the wall hard. Previously he had been staring at the Tyrants which is why his gaze was on the wall, though he did not notice as he was caught up in his own thoughts. He looks at Jill, who gave him furrowed brows.

"It's nothing." he shakes his head, getting on the elevator and allowing it to hoist them up to the upper level.

Jill only gave him a look, but decided to go against her option to make him confess. It's plausible the way Byleth was looking at the Tyrants was making him remember unpleasant things. She guessed it may have something to do with the stone in his chest. Still, how it is possible for him to walk around without an important organ and only having a stone instead?

She has a feeling she'll get her answers soon.

At the upper level, they left the elevator and headed their way to a lab. Though when they're about to get in, the Ashen Demon's mind warned of infection which made him pull up his Matilda as zombies showed their face by walking out. Firing away, Jill switched her pistol for her Grenade Launcher with explosive rounds in them as she lets one loose. Two zombies were down and the Nemesis-a melted away but a Pale Head was not.

Which that one is soon taken care off with Byleth slicing its head off clean.

Entering the room after getting some explosive from the case, a single zombie raised itself up from the ground. But Jill only killed it with her shotgun while Byleth was getting the adjuvant from the drawer that had its light green. The adjuvant contains a blue liquid within and unlike the antigen, it was filled almost the entire way.

"These are combined with antigens to increase immune system response." he muttered to himself, while Jill walks over to him after getting gunpowder and reading a document that states about Nemesis.

"Right. Should we combine them?" Jill suggests.

"Let's do it when we are back to the Vaccine Equipment." Byleth said, and she nodded in agreement. They left the room and headed back on the elevator to head down. When back down to the Incubation Lab, they were only halfway of leaving the room when suddenly two Beta Hunters among the other four burst themselves out.

This triggered the security system to slam down the door shut and lock them in.

"Oh fuck!" Jill cursed when Beta Hunter 1 screeched and tried to maul her face. Luckily, the elite cop rolled her way out of there as the Beta Hunter had its enlarged hand sliced off by Byleth. Bleeding and yowling, it staggers back while Beta Hunter 2 tried to attack the mint-haired man.

But Jill blows it back with her shotgun, and the protective layer of its head was off. It tried to attack her again and this time, Jill ducked before she kicked it in the stomach. Stunned for only a bit, the Beta Hunter couldn't react fast enough when Jill head shots it one last time as it dropped dead.

Meanwhile, the other Beta Hunter resorts to using its only arm to try killing Byleth. But the man was too quick, as he side-steps with precision and impales it through its body. He kicks it off from the Sword of the Creator, and the Beta Hunter was sprawled on its back since its heart was sliced from the impale.

Once both are dead, the alarm stopped blaring as the doors slid back up again for them to continue forward.

Eventually, they made it back to the Vaccine Equipment room and stood in front of the machine. Byleth combines both of the samples, as the adjuvant was poured into the antigen as the liquid turned green. They have successfully made a base. He inserts the sample into the chamber as the screen beside was lit up.

"Alright... if I remember right." Byleth made the first column set to 'MID' and the middle to 'HIGH', leaving the last and third one as 'LOW'. And just like that, with the correct settings, the equipment began to synthesis the vaccine.

_'Synthesizing vaccine...'_

"Yes! You did it!" Jill cheered a little, smiling a bit widely while Byleth smiled as well. They both stood by, watching the machine doing its magic with the vaccine base. It took only a moment for the process to finish, as the machine props up the vaccine which is now a vibrant purple in the different slot.

_'Synthesis complete. Please remove the vaccine canister.'_

Jill takes the sample, then puts it away into her pocket. She then turns to Byleth, "Now all we have to do is find Carlos and get the hell out of here."

Byleth nods, before Jill steps away from him to see if there was any other way to get deeper into NEST 2. Though unbeknownst to them, a tentacle was slowly moving itself towards Byleth with his back turned to it. Jill frowns when she couldn't get in touch with Carlos and sighed in irritation.

Jill turns around, "I still can't get in tou- BYLETH LOOK OUT!" Her eyes went wide when she caught sight of a familiar tendril that belonged to their Pursuer.

He turned, just as the tentacle slammed itself into him roughly. His body collided into Jill, as both of them cried out in pain and landed on a platform on their stomachs. Both of them lifted themselves up to their knees, with the Ashen Demon looking over to Jill.

"Is the vaccine OK?" he asked.

If anything were to happen to the vaccine, the city is done for. Jill quickly felt the pocket that contains the vaccine, which she was thankful there was no signs of wetness.

"Still in one piece! We have to go if that thing is here!" she said, both getting up to their feet. They spotted a vent and quickly they crawled themselves through with Jill in the lead. She slammed on the grate twice with her might, and managed to get it down as she crawled out first before Byleth.

Though Byleth grunted in surprise when he felt his neck being wrapped and dragged off to the right side, where Nemesis happens to be.

"Byleth!" Jill shouted, taking out her Samurai Edge to shoot Nemesis. Though while Byleth was doing the same with his Matilda, he realized this wouldn't get Nemesis to release him. So when he looks over quickly at the white tanks, he switches his aim over to it, seeing this had Jill scramble back to not get blown away, and pulled the trigger.

One bullet was enough to set off explosions, which caused Nemesis to be engulfed and the tentacle released as Byleth was blown ahead and land on his stomach, which caused him to wince from the pain. Byleth then tried to get up to get going, only to widen his eyes when he felt Nemesis grabbing onto his right leg and started to drag him back to it.

"Damn it!" he cursed, grabbing onto the ground to power-crawl himself in the opposite direction.

Gun going off filled his ears, making him glance up quickly to see Jill firing bullets at Nemesis. Though Nemesis was blinded since it was behind the wall of flames, it's obvious that Nemesis still remained where they last remembered him in. In the same position before the explosions went off.

"Let go of him, you piece of shit!!" Jill hissed, firing more ammo.

Eventually firing away with guns wasn't necessary, as another set of explosion went off and the tentacle was forced to release Byleth. Jill quickly helped him up, as they rushed onto the elevator ahead. She operated the elevator to take them up, before more explosions happened with fire nearly licking her face which made her shield herself with her arms.

The elevator takes them up to safety.

-

"Hopefully that's the end of it." Jill sighed heavily, as the elevator took them to a room. They scavenged around for supplies, and eventually decided to take a quick break from what just happened. She looks over to Byleth, "That thing looks dead set on getting you, rather than killing me first."

"I'm not even surprised." Byleth said, looking a bit annoyed.

Jill then leans forward, since she was sitting on the table while Byleth himself remained standing.

"Can you at least tell me why Umbrella is after the stone in your chest? Whatever it is, it had to be pretty valuable to them to go through all the trouble to get it. From you, that is." she asked him. Byleth averts his emerald eyes to the side of the room, before to her.

"Would you believe me if I say the stone gives you the ability to rewind time?" Byleth questioned.

This made Jill sit up straight, eyes narrowing in thought.

Rewind time? If anything in her opinion, that sounded very far-fetched and something that can only happen in movies. Then again, that's like being delusion that zombies can never actually exist and B.O.W.s as well, with Tyrants and Nemesis being part of it.

"Well, if all this never happened then I wouldn't." Jill admits. "So, are you saying you can actually control time? Like looking into the future or in the past?" she then questioned the mercenary of another world.

He shook his head, "I... can only rewind, like go back in time to redo mistakes. Only for a little, depends how much my body can handle. Too much might cause me to go into a coma."

Jill nods, and she glowered at her lap. If what he said is true, then that must be why Umbrella wanted the stone from his chest. With that kind of ability to rewind back in time, that would mean redoing the mistakes they've made. Such as... the Arklay Incident. No doubt they want to prevent her and the other STARS members from knowing, and perhaps kill them even.

That should be the obvious reason why.

Then a thought occurred to her.

"Byleth... you said you can rewind time for only a little, right?" When Byleth nodded, Jill then continued. "Have you... ever used that ability with me?"

Jill watched his eyes going wide, and going a bit slack as his face turned a bit pale. So he has, she thought to himself. But whatever it could be, it had to be bad for him to turn a bit pale.

"I did.... once." Byleth said. At that time, the memories of Jill's supposed death entered in his mind, along with the rampage of Isadora when she was sadistically torturing the Gamma Hunter in the sewers. "It was back in the sewers, when Isadora was with us."

Jill furrowed her brows a bit, recalling their time in the sewers. "What made you use it?"

Byleth's answer was blunt.

"A Gamma Hunter killed you."

Jill's eyes went wide, akin to being horrified. Jill was aware of what the Gamma Hunters can do, they are large enough to devour a single person with their tendrils to wrap around a victim. And hearing Byleth revealing that the Gamma Hunter had killed her made her skin crawl at the thought of being devoured by them. But when she dug up memories of the sewers, she doesn't recall being killed by one.

"But I don't remember getting caught by one of them."

"That's because to you, it never happened." Byleth points out. Then he went quiet and added, "But to me, it definitely happened and I can still remember it in detail. After it swallowed you, Isadora went berserk and killed the Gamma Hunter brutally."

He unconsciously lifts his hand, touching the area right below his left eye. "I was told that when Isadora sees something that pissed her off or was set off either way, she developed strong urges to kill anything in sight and she did just that when she witnessed you getting killed. Though she called it a Bloodlust Episode."

She was left speechless for a moment.

Jill had thought Isadora wasn't one to get pissed off easily, but she was wrong about it. It seemed Umbrella was enough to piss her off, but to hear that if anyone were to be killed by them indirectly was the last straw to make her kill anything in sight sends chills down her spine. Though what's even more depressing is that while she doesn't recall herself getting killed, Byleth did himself.

She realized while he rewinds time, that meant he would still remember the vague deaths like it really happened to him. But to others, it never came to them.

"I'm sorry, that I brought it up." Jill said apologetically.

"It's fine, I'm used to it." Byleth shakes his head. A white lie, he could never stop himself from remembering the deaths of his former students that he made sure to avoid be rewinding time and fixing it. Though that doesn't mean he can save everyone, hence the death of his father Jeralt. As well as Rodrigue, because he feared Dimitri wouldn't regain his senses without the father of Felix being the catalyst of sanity if Byleth were to prevent his death.

A sickening trade-off, but it's something he had no choice but to abide.

With a nod to herself, Jill pushed herself off the table. "All the more reason to take down Umbrella." She said out loud, making Byleth look at her in perplex. She smirked at him as she continued, "With the vaccine in hand as evidence, we can destroy Umbrella. So what do you say?"

Byleth stared, then gained a smirk of his own.

"I can fit it into my agenda." he said.

-

"What in god's name is this place?" Jill's voice echoed in the large room. In front of them, is a large area with tanks having labeled numbers on them surrounding the area below. They could see piles of what looked like corpses in rounded corners, but that place looked large enough to be a battlefield.

"This place seems large enough to fight Nemesis." Byleth muses, as he and Jill walk along the walkway. After Jill found more Flame Rounds from the left side.

"Are you calling it?" Jill gave him a sour look.

"With Nemesis finding us in large open spaces, I wouldn't be surprised." Byleth said. They reached to the stairway and only barely heading down when they heard aloud noise ahead. They look ahead, eyes widened to see Nemesis pulling itself out of the doorway where they had just come from.

"Back!!" Jill shouted, when Nemesis started running after them. They scrambled back up, but then Nemesis leaped itself onto the stairs they were on and it came apart. They grabbed onto the yellow rails of the stairs, though Nemesis hanged onto the staircase with its tentacle, adding weight before it slipped off.

This also caused the two to fall as well, loosing their grips as Byleth managed to keep himself up on the edge of the platform, his other arm holding Jill as she clung onto him. Something caught his eye, making Byleth look over to see the vaccine rolled close to him safely tucked in a canister.

Shit, it must've fell out of Jill's pocket!

"Ooh. What do we have here?" came a familiar, Russian-accented voice that drawled out in surprise, as a person stepped closer to where the vaccine is and picks it up. Byleth and Jill lifted their heads, seeing that it was the traitor himself. 

"Nicholai, don't! The city needs that vaccine!" Jill shouted urgently, while Nicholai eyes the sample.

"More than I do? Hmm." Nicholai pretends to be in thought, when he lowered himself on his knees to meet their gazes. After a moment of silence, he speaks up. "I don't think the wisdom I've been trying to impact on you both is getting through."

Nicholai steps onto Byleth's hand, which made him groan in pain.

"Now I know you can't put a price on life." Nicholai then gave a look of slight anger, as he leans a bit closer to them. "But I'm in this business to get paid." Then quickly he stands with his back straightened and replaced it with malicious glee, "So let's make a deal! You two go down there, battle the Nemesis. And I'll record it all and sell the combat data. Put on the good show and maybe I don't need the vaccine." he said, while gesturing the vaccine to them.

Is that man serious?!

Doesn't he realize lives are at stake because of not only the virus, but also the missile that'll strike soon!?

"Agreed?" Nicholai questioned. Though he only received glares from Byleth and Jill, he went along with it. "Good."

He forced Byleth's hand to release its hold, causing the two to tumbled down to the Disposal Center. Ignoring the pain from tumbling, both of them rose up and get themselves ready to fight as Nemesis stood at the center and ready to kill both of them.

"I'm gonna kill him after this!" Jill hissed, as Nemesis then ran over to them to slam its right hand down. Both of them managed to move themselves out of the way when the hulking monster started running, and Jill switches her explosive rounds for flame rounds.

"Right now, we have to focus on killing Nemesis!" Byleth shouted, firing his Matilda at Nemesis. It turned its attention to him and attacks him with its tentacle, but he back-flipped himself out of them before resuming firing away with his handgun.

A burst of flames to the side had Nemesis going slack, growling in pain as the flames scorched its body. Jill stared at it, then to the flames before smirking. It didn't occur to her back then at the Clock Tower, but it seemed Nemesis despises fire. Good thing she stashed a large amount of them, and keeping some of the leftover explosive rounds.

"Byleth! Nemesis hates fire!" She shouted from her position, firing another flame round when Nemesis turned its attention to attack before that happened which stopped it in its tracks. From his side, Byleth pants a little and straps away Matilda, as he drew Sword of the Creator from his opposite side.

**_'Good to know.'_** Byleth thought to himself, looking at Nemesis powering through the small pit of fire and attacking Jill once more. She ducked and went to fire another, which this time Nemesis resisted. Only barely, since it seemed really pissed at Jill using its weakness against it. _**'If that's the case, then this is the time I regret not training myself to be more versatile in magic. Healing magic is all I know.'**_

"BYLETH!"

He looked ahead, in time to see Nemesis rushing over to him with high speed. He barely dodged out of the way, and Byleth could've swore he heard a loud 'SNAP' from Nemesis. Was Nemesis trying to clamp its jaws on him? Well fuck, had Jill not shouted then that could've been it for him.

He moved himself back, as Nemesis turned to him and swiped its tentacle at him. With a swipe of his sword, the tentacle was intercepted and Nemesis retracts it while the sword reverts back into a sword.

" _Jill! Byleth! Is that you guys?_ " a familiar voice echoed through the intercom. They quickly looked over to the sound of his voice, and looked above to see Carlos from the control room.

"Carlos?!" Byleth said in surprise.

" _You're OK!_ " Carlos said, just as Nemesis growled and shook its body. Jill and Byleth turned their attention to it, as the monster bellowed, which caused half of the tanks to loose electricity for a moment and started to run around the Disposal Center, right behind the tanks as well. " _Let me spot for you guys!_ "

"Good idea." Jill said.

" _Watch it, you got company!_ " Carlos warned, as he had spotted several zombies coming from the disposal. Since Nemesis wasn't showing any signs of stopping, Jill and Byleth went to take care of the zombies instead momentarily. Jill with her head shots, and Byleth simply cutting of their heads clean.

More kept coming, but they busy themselves to dispose zombies that would distract them.

" _He's hiding behind tank four!_ " Carlos shouted.

Since Byleth wasn't preoccupied, he raised his head to quickly scan each tanks. Coming across Tank 4, he fires the red buttons which caused the tank to let loose electricity like the generators. A shriek of pain was heard, and Nemesis started tumbling down from its hiding spot and back down with them.

With zombies momentarily taken care of, Jill let loose some explosive rounds on Nemesis. With a bellow of pain, Nemesis then swung its tentacle arm at Jill. She sees it and knew couldn't get out of the way in time, hence her crying out in pain and she tumbled to the side.

"Jill!" Byleth shouted, as Nemesis rose up and stalked after her. With gritted teeth, he swung the Sword of the Creator and it wrapped itself around the monster's neck. Much like last time, Nemesis stumbles back on its hind legs while growling, as Byleth pulls him back before tugging him downwards.

With a crash to the ground being heard, Jill managed to stand on her feet and move herself out of the way while the Sword of the Creator released its hold. Nemesis recomposed itself and started running around the area once more before back on the slope behind the tanks.

" _Here comes some more!_ " Carlos shouted, as more zombies began to appear from being disposed.

Byleth looks over to Jill, "Do you still have mine rounds?"

"I think I should! But what if Nemesis avoids them?" Jill quickly questioned.

"Wouldn't hurt to try!" Byleth said, before slashing away the zombies at their torsos. Though they are missing half of their bodies, they are still alive and kept crawling after them. With consideration, Jill began to quickly switch her explosive rounds for the leftover mine rounds.

Byleth switches for his Matilda to fire at the incoming zombies, giving cover for Jill. Couple shots to the one on the left, its now dead. Three on the one in front of them, now dead as well. Instant head shot on the ones to his right, obvious automatic death.

Jill was quick with switching ammo. She'll give herself credit for that. But the grenade launcher had always made her reloading speed linger longer. She managed to get all five mine rounds in, and she cocks the weapon ready to be used. She decided to stick with her shotgun for now since switching it would take some time when firing at Nemesis.

Speaking of Nemesis-

" _Watch your right!_ "

Both of them whirled their heads, seeing Nemesis in plain sight and seemingly ready to pounce on them. With wide eyes, they split apart from each other when Nemesis leaped high in the air and down onto the area where the pair were previously. Turning its head to the nearest prey, who is Jill, Nemesis rushed after her and swiped its right hand at her. She rolled away and it clawed at the wall instead.

Nemesis leaps back onto the slope to run around again.

As this was going on, Byleth then spots what looked like a large clawed hand made of metal. Pursing his lips with a plan formulating, he turns over to Carlos.

"Carlos! Can you use that when Nemesis isn't hiding behind the tanks?" he shouted. Carlos looks to where Byleth was pointing, seeing he was gesturing the crane, then back to him with a nod.

" _Sure thing!_ "

At that time, Jill lets loose a mine on the area Nemesis was about to run through. To her inner disbelief, Nemesis had seen it and instantly turned around to avoid it. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. Looks like Nemesis learned its lesson from their fight back in front of the Clock Tower. The mine went off on its own, and Nemesis runs around in full loop while Jill went to switch rounds.

Zombies were coming in, while Nemesis kept running around. The Ashen Demon and the surviving STARS cop takes care of them each, since they noticed there were more zombies than before. Head shots, slicing heads clean, and even exploding them away with their remaining hand grenades. This time, Nemesis wasn't hiding behind the tanks and leaped onto one of them in front.

" _Number one!_ " Carlos shouted, while getting himself ready to use the crane.

Jill had the tank in her sight after the zombies were taken care off, so she fired the button and it electrocuted Nemesis in place.

" _I got this!_ " Carlos then had the crane slam into the tank. Even though he tried going for Nemesis, but he quickly realize he would potentially risk unleashing acid that would kill Jill and Byleth. The acid rains upon Nemesis, which made it release its grip and fell onto the ground motionless.

Nemesis didn't move.

"Jill! Byleth! Here comes the crane. Use it to climb up!" Carlos said from within the control room, while he was getting the crane moving for the two to climb on. Jill and Byleth stood by side to side, waiting for the crane panting lightly from the adrenaline of facing Nemesis.

But then they heard Nemesis getting up, making them turn to it.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Byleth breathed, as he and Jill fired their handguns at it while stepping back for distance. Nemesis was stalking towards them, ignoring the bullets.

" _Stay back!_ " Carlos shouted suddenly, which made them look over and to quickly duck down for cover.

When Nemesis leaped towards them, Carlos had also made the crane to slam itself into Nemesis. If one were to slow down time, they would witness some of Nemesis' teeth being knocked out with blood splattering out from the mouth before Nemesis was slammed to the side of the curved wall hard and truly knocked out.

They straighten their backs, seeing Nemesis out with a crane beside them.

" _Now! Get on!_ "

Byleth and Jill wasted no time climbing on the crane. They raised their hands to signal him to get them out of there, and Carlos did just that while eyeing Nemesis.

" _I'm gonna melt this fucker into mush!_ "

On cue, each tanks began to pour down acid and it pools in the area. The moment it touched Nemesis, with the substance beginning to eat away its flesh, Nemesis was awoken instantly and started shrieking in agony. Nemesis was squirming around, seemingly trying to get itself out of there while Jill and Byleth watched, with blood seeping around the monster.

Nemesis lets out a howl, before it sank itself into the depths of the acid pool.

" _OK! I'll meet you guys up ahead!_ "


	10. Epilogue: Reunion at Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth and Jill chased after Nicholai for the vaccine, only for Nemesis to return for more. They finally killed the BIO weapon, and soon they are greeted with familiar faces as they managed to make their escape from the ultimate nightmare of Raccoon City...

**THE END IS HERE!!**

* * *

Byleth opens the door and lets himself in along with Jill, with the vault door slamming shut. They are now standing within the corridor leading them to a single door up ahead. Now that Nemesis is over with, all that's left is getting back the vaccine from Nicholai.

"Nicholai. Where did you go...?" Jill seethed under her breath, as they paced themselves down to the corridor. "We have to get that vaccine back." she added out loud, with a fiery look in her eyes.

They had come this far getting the vaccine. Though the first sample was meant for Byleth, since he was infected from Nemesis. The one they had and was taken away was meant for the city. With it, Raccoon would be saved from the missile.

Only problem is Nicholai himself.

That bastard had messed with them long enough!

"He can't have gone too far. I'm sure he stuck around for data." Byleth said, making the elite cop nod. When entering the room, they began to get themselves ready in case Nicholai decides to put up a fight. At one point, Jill noticed something that caught her eye, which is a green manual.

Picking it up, she reads it and halfway she realized this was about a prototype weapon that is meant to destroy bioweapons at ease in case of outbreak. Supposedly very powerful, with the downside of it having less mobility and needing to be recharged after use. She puts it down, after she quickly scanned the manual.

_**'Though why do I get the feeling it'll be useful?'**_ Jill thought to herself.

"Let's go." Byleth said, making Jill nod as they left the room. They were on the side path above a very large area below them. There are marking on the ground, indicating yards while there are what looks like those power-source canisters on the side and a container in the far back. It looked like it has something inside, but that isn't important now.

On their left was a window, viewing the Disposal Center. Of course, this had to be where Nicholai was watching from. When getting across and reaching the door, it slid open and they entered. They raised their guns immediately, with Nicholai doing the same when he heard them coming in. In his other hand is the vaccine.

"It's done. Give us the vaccine, you greedy son of a bitch!" Jill hissed at him, stepping closer over to him.

"Oh no no no no." Nicholai said, taking a step away from them when they took a step forward. "You two, print money. I like money." He had gestured them on the first part before to himself for the second. "We shall make ours an ongoing agreement. Now drop the gun!" he finished with a threat, a glare on his face.

This made Jill and Byleth glare at him back.

Suddenly, the wall between them burst down, causing them to recoil in surprise while the entire wall of the corner started to come down. While Nicholai was still up on the rails as he moved himself away from getting down, Jill and Byleth weren't so lucky and tumbled down to the lower ground in the wide open area. Both of them got up steadily, when they see something large, resembling a blob of flesh, moving itself down with them with liquid slowly filling.

Both of them stepped back with wide eyes, while Nicholai moved himself in their sight as he marvels the cocoon-like blob. The cocoon then burst itself open, like an actual one as tendrils suddenly shot into the corners as though to stabilize itself in place.

"What the hell?" Jill said, while she and Byleth kept stepping back away from the thing and the acid leaking in.

Nicholai looks on, before a wide smile breaks out.

"Have youHave you seen anything so incredible? The data on this would be worth millions!" Nicholai began to gloat, as the blob had unleashed the monster within. And it turns out to be Nemesis, with only having its upper body exposed with organs and having tendrils behind him that act like petals in an odd way, and long arms and its skeleton exposed and guarding organs.

Nicholai starts to step back, "But, uh, you know how it iscity's about to explode... And you you can't put a price on life." He then laughs, before giving them a salute. "Good luck!" he then high-tails out of the room, to leave this situation to the two.

"NICHOLAI!!" Jill shouted furiously.

**(RE3 Remake OST: Nemesis Final Metamorphosis)**

"Jill! Byleth!" Carlos then appeared from above, catching their attention momentarily.

"Carlos! Go after Nicholai and get the vaccine back from him!" Byleth shouted at him. Time is at stake, and they can't afford to let Nicholai get away with the vaccine. But at the same time, they can't afford to let Nemesis linger around any longer.

This monster has got to go, this time for sure!

"What about you?" Carlos asked.

"We're running out of time! We got this!" Jill shouted next, before they turned their attention back on Nemesis. Carlos nods to himself.

"I know you do." Carlos then runs off to chase after Nicholai.

They stared at the monstrosity in front of them. They stared down at the monster that relentlessly chased after them since the time this whole mess started. Though Nemesis was the first to chase after Jill, it had then chased after Byleth as well when he was within its sight. Programmed to kill one of them and to take the Crest from the other. This thing has been a thorn in their side.

"Look, just so you know? This is the last fucking time." Jill said, earning a growl from Nemesis as it slammed one of its hands down to the ground. Jill switched out her grenade launcher and lets loose a flame round. However, even though it was a direct hit, Nemesis doesn't seemed to be bothered by it anymore.

"Shoot. I don't think our weapons could do a thing." Jill said, looking over to Byleth. He furrowed his brows, when a thought occurred to him. He turns, seeing the container behind them and quickly wanders over to get it to open up.

There was a hiss, as the container starts to come undone revealing a weapon inside. Jill looks at it, then instantly remembered about the manual she had read earlier and smirked a bit in glee. If memory serves right, this weapon has to be the infamous rail-gun.

The FINGeR.

"Now we're talking." Jill said, as the box hoists up the FINGeR to be taken. They both heard a noise, looking over their shoulders to see Nemesis about to bring down its fist into them. Both of them rolled out of the way, as it slammed down on the spot they were in before.

Jill looks over to it, then to Byleth.

"I'll distract it! Use the weapon!" she shouted, turning around and aiming her Samurai Edge on Nemesis. Byleth nods and paces over to the prototype weapon. He takes it into his hands, grunting a bit when he felt how heavy it was while the barrel then fixated itself to be able to take shot properly.

With Nemesis being distracted, he aimed the weapon onto its shoulder before pulling what is supposed to be a trigger in his right hand. There was a cackle around the barrel, and Byleth knew this weapon is a heavy hitter so he braced himself to hold still. He grunts with effort when a shot was made as the ground beneath him crumbled, and created a fatal wound on Nemesis' shoulder.

Howling in pain, Nemesis then leveled its gaze on Byleth as he withdraws the FINGeR, the barrel becoming undone while Jill rushes back to his side. At that time, the power sources all popped out from their position. Then most of them sets back in position save for only three which then glowed red.

_'Cooldown in progress. Please reactivate power sources.'_

The screen on the FINGeR blared 'ERROR'.

"This thing needs power!" Byleth grunted, as he placed the weapon back into position for it to get more power. He turns back to Nemesis along with Jill, before eyeing both sides that are close to Nemesis. One from the left side, and two on the right side. "We need to push them in for the weapon to be charged."

"Right! But first, let's do something with that freak!" Jill said, switching her pistol for her Magnum.

Like Barry always said, your best friend til the very end. Barry was always a guy favoring the powerful magnums, with one in particular he always kept on him in many situations. She didn't understand quite a it before, other than his favoritism. But now she gets it.

They hadn't noticed this the first time, but they spotted what looked like pink sacs on Nemesis' body. Four of them in fact, two on his left side while the other two are on the right side. Jill aimed one of them and let loose the weapon. It instantly popped it, making Nemesis to hiss.

"Felt that, did you? How about some more!" Jill said rather mockingly.

With that in mind, he used Matilda to aim at the other one on the opposite side. It took a couple shots for it to be popped. Then a shadow casts over him, making Byleth instinctively roll to the side as the arm was brought down to where he previous had been. Another fire from Jill's magnum, and a burst of the third sac.

The last one is left.

Taking the Sword of the Creator in hand, Byleth swings it and it impaled the last pink sac. Then he shoots it with Matilda, and two shots had destroyed it as he retracts his sword. Nemesis howled in pain, as it then fell onto the ground completely stunned while Jill and Byleth avoided the arms coming down as well.

Jill went to push in the one on the left, while Byleth went to push in the ones on his side.

With grunts of effort, Jill managed to secure one back in position. She quickly moved herself back from it, and starts heading on over to the center and keeping an eye on Nemesis while Byleth was doing his part. He managed to get one of them on his side pushed back in.

_'One power source remaining.'_

At that time, Nemesis then rose itself up, which made Byleth move himself out of the way while it was doing just that. More pink sacs appeared on Nemesis' body, only with a bit more than the last. Not much though since its only about six more this time, but still a lot though.

Jill fired her Magnum, popping two pink sacs instantly while Byleth was only shooting thrice or sometimes four times to get one sac to be destroyed. At one point, there was dreaded click from her gun which made Jill curse at herself. She then quickly reached around herself for more ammo to load her gun.

Though Nemesis then tried to spew acid at her. 

She moved herself out of the way, while searching for more magnum rounds blindly. She managed to find some and started loading right away with fastened pace. Nemesis then brought down one arm at her, and she cocked the Magnum in place while she rolled herself out from danger at the same time. The monster then growled when its other sac was popped from the right side.

Jill resumed aiming at the third on her side, and fires it. When it popped, Jill moves her Magnum over to Byleth's side as he had barely popped the second one. She aimed for the third and fired it. Nemesis fell down in a stunned state once more, as the progenitor god rushed over to the last one in the far side and pushes it in.

Jill makes her way over to the FINGeR, just as Byleth pushed in the final one and quickly moved himself away from Nemesis, as it seemed to regain itself quicker than before.

_'All power sources activated. Powering up.'_

"You think we don't know how to fuck you up?!" Jill shouted, as she grabbed the FINGeR this time. She aimed it back on Nemesis, as the barrel then went into active mode. She pulled the trigger, as the weapon that is fully powered then let loose a blast to Nemesis.

It shot square in the wound Byleth hit before, and boy was Nemesis in for a rude awakening. It fell forward, with its face vulnerable and out in the open.

"Let's do this, Byleth!" Jill said, as Byleth held onto the FINGeR alongside Jill as they both tread towards Nemesis.

"Time to finish this!" Byleth said with his voice strong and determined. Once they stood in front of Nemesis, both of them shoved the FINGeR into Nemesis' mouth. Both pulled the trigger, as the weapon is preparing itself to shoot once more.

"You want STARS?! WE'LL GIVE YOU STARS!!" Jill shouted fiercely.

Nemesis bellows loudly as the FINGeR then blasted its entire body up. This made one hell of a bloody explosion, as both were blown back onto the ground with blood raining down a little and more pooling around them. They both then slowly sat up, getting rid of the blood on their faces as they see the destruction they caused together.

Both of them looked at each other, then back to the mess.

"Good riddance." Byleth remarked.

"No kidding." Jill agreed, as they both stood up and started making their way out of there. They each climbed up the ladder and began heading their way through the door. They ran down the corridor, while ignoring the pebbles coming down from above as the other door revealed what appears to be an elevator in the center.

"We can't let Nicholai get away with the vaccine!" Jill said, while they were nearing towards the elevator.

"I'm sure Carlos managed to stop him while we are dealing with Nemesis." Byleth reassured, as they stopped and let the elevator open up for them to get in. Both of them stepped in, as he operates the elevator to take them up.

"I hope so." Jill said, as they both stood by for the elevator to take them to their next stop. "That way, we can still catch him." she added.

The elevator came to a stop, and they reached to what appeared to be a stairway to the rooftop. Both of them stepped out hastily and made their way up. When they reached the top, both of them stopped dead in their tracks upon the sight in front of them.

There's a helicopter awaiting for use. Though it doesn't seem like there's anybody there within. That wasn't their attention, because Carlos himself was laying on his back looking to be out.

"Oh no..." Jill rushed over to Carlos, with Byleth right behind her. She kneels down, and looks for possible injuries but was able to find none. Then a grunt was heard along with something falling to the ground, making Jill alert and turning her head as she stands up.

With Nicholai in sight, he kicked her away from Carlos which made her cry out in surprise. Landing on her rear, she quickly drew her Samurai Edge but Nicholai then kicked it out of her hand before aiming his gun at her. From his place, Byleth quickly stood up to help.

"Take one step and her life ends there." Nicholai threatens, making Byleth stop dead in his tracks while glaring at him. The white-haired man glanced between them with narrowed eyes. "You're not going to stop me."

Then Nicholai reached behind him, pulling out the vaccine as he showed them it. "Promised you two this, didn't I?"

He tossed it near Jill, and when she went to grab it Nicholai then shot it. This caused the vial to be shattered, with the remnants of the vaccine spilled all over. Much to the horror of Byleth and Jill, as their ticket of freeing Raccoon City and saving the remaining lives is suddenly ruined.

"NOO!!" Jill cried in horror.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done, Nicholai?!" Byleth shouted at him furiously.

The man simply shrugged, "Don't know, don't care. My client ordered me to reduce Umbrella to rubble."

Reduce Umbrella to rubble?!

That was this guy's intention all along?! Why is he doing this way, when they could've just worked together?! But it seems Nicholai is working with someone who wanted to see Umbrella burn down and plans to burn them in his own way. This made the two glare at him further.

_"Ten minutes until missile impact."_

Wait, ten minutes?!

"Ah. The missile has launched. And that is my cue to leave." Nicholai then focused his attention on Jill, tightening his hold on his pistol. "Good-bye, Miss Valentine. A shame you didn't listen to me when you had the chance." Then he looks over to Byleth, keeping a grin on his face, "As for you. If you value your life, then come with me. My client has been dying to meet you and your gift."

Byleth glowered at him, even though he was conflicted on the inside. He could just simply used Divine Pulse, but what if Nicholai anticipates it like the time he tried to save his father from being stabbed by Kronya? Should he really try and risk Jill getting shot?

Before he speaks his mind, there was a gunshot that made Nicholai's gun fling out of his hand. This caught Nicholai by surprise, before he groaned in pain when he felt his legs being shot as well and was forced to kneel down. This surprised Jill and Byleth at the sudden turn of events, when Carlos calmly sat up with a grin on his face.

"About time you showed up." Carlos said, looking past Byleth.

This made Jill and Byleth look over, and their eyes went wide.

Isadora makes her way over them, with her Red9 out. Isadora looked completely different from before, as she was missing her black jacket and wore a different top, which is a white shirt that is oddly clean compared to herself. Which are completely dirty and matted with blood and grime. She was also missing her hoops in her hair.

"Sorry, stuck in traffic." Isadora simply said, as she stood beside Byleth.

"Isadora!" Jill and Byleth said in rejoice.

Nicholai raised himself up, glaring at Isadora. He went for his dagger, only to stop himself when he felt not only one but two barrels resting on his head.

"Move a muscle and you're as good as dead." a female voice hissed. This made Jill and Byleth look, seeing two more survivors they haven't seen before standing over Nicholai.

A woman owning red-brown hair in a black tank-top with blue pants and black boots, a grenade launcher strapped on her back as she had her SLS 60 on Nicholai. A man with the uniform Jill quickly recognized with his arms bare, a bandage wrapped around his left shoulder with a shotgun on his back as well, with his own customed Matilda out and aimed.

And is that... is that a young girl standing close to Carlos?

"Who are...?" Byleth began.

"Claire and Leon were the people I ran into while looking for Sherry." Isadora explained, while twirling her Red9 with her index finger. "Funny story is, we left Raccoon City yesterday, but I decided to come back here when Carlos himself contacted me about this. I only intended to come back, but these two wanted to tag along."

"You rubbed it on us." Leon said, smirking a bit.

Nicholai glares at Isadora, while Carlos heads on inside to get the chopper going. "So this whole time, you were somewhere else in Raccoon City and escaped. And you decided to return here, when this entire city will be blown to nothing?"

Isadora stared at him.

"I've got pals here. I would be marked as a scum if I think about abandoning them here, especially Byleth." She said to him, before she looks at the destroyed vaccine. Which made her look back to Nicholai with a smirk. "By the way, did you really think that vaccine is the last of it?"

This made Byleth, Jill and even Nicholai himself confused.

Isadora reached behind her, pulling out a familiar canister that contains _another_ vaccine. Seeing their disbelief faces, she smirked even more at Nicholai while Jill and Byleth looked utterly relieved heavily.

"T-That's impossible! I made sure to destroy all the vaccine samples Bard created!" Nicholai said.

Isadora puts away the vaccine, "Perhaps. But I made a quick trip to his place and managed to get him to hand one over to me, promising him I'd bring down Umbrella." She nods at Leon, Claire, Byleth and Jill to get on the chopper, when they did since Sherry is already on it with Carlos.

"You traitor!" Nicholai hissed.

Isadora laughed, "Me? Traitor? No, that would be you since you tried to kill my comrades." She then raised her Red9 at him, intending to finish him off. This made the man laugh, giving her a smirk of his own.

"So you resort to being a monster, Project Isadora-G? Go on then, finish me off and prove to your comrades what kind of monster you really are to them." Nicholai taunted her. Isadora kept her gaze on him, then lowers her gun which perplexed the man.

"I'm not gonna kill you." Isadora then whistled loudly. Then looking ahead where Isadora looked, Nicholai witnessed what appeared to be an enormous monster crawling its way over from the ledge of the building. It lets out a hiss, the tongue slithering out almost like a snake detecting body heat.

"Remember Penelope, Nicholai?" Isadora asked, making Nicholai look at her sharply. "The same woman that you kidnapped from her home, so that she could be the newest subject for Umbrella to test on with the virus? She'd like to give payback for making her life cut-short and making her into this."

"Plus," Isadora added, as she grew a smirk on her face. "Penelope wouldn't mind having you as her last meal before this whole city turns into dust."

The enlarged Licker stalks over to Nicholai, ignoring the fact he was looking between her and Isadora in terror. Isadora simply smirked, and turns around for the chopper.

"No, you cannot! You cannot leave me here with this freak!!" Isadora ignored Nicholai's shouts, as she climbs on, and sat on the ledge. "I'll tell you about my client!! You'll be a fool for never knowing the truth!!"

"We don't mind detective work." Jill said from her seat, as Carlos then operated the chopper to take off.

This left Nicholai to face alone with Licker Penelope, as she was now within five feet close to him. Nicholai tried to crawl himself away from her, even though the bullets in his legs was making it difficult. Then with a shriek, Licker Penelope pounced herself onto Nicholai. His screams of agony echoing through the silent air as Penelope feasts onto him.

Isadora listens, then sighed.

_**'Good thing I didn't show him**_ **that** _**one instead.'**_ she thought to herself.

-

"So you must be the rookie for RPD." Jill said, looking over to Leon. The rest are sitting comfortable in their seats, while Isadora takes her spot beside Carlos as he pilots the chopper far from the city. The man nodded, and Jill huffed a bit.

"How's your first day?" she questioned.

"Not the way I imagined." Leon said, with a bit of a smile on his face. Then Jill averts her attention to Claire.

"You're Chris's sister, right?" This perked the woman, leaning a bit forward in her seat. "If you were looking for Chris, just know that he's actually in Europe." Jill added, since it was clear Claire was looking for her brother. Though to Jill, it wouldn't hurt for that guy to inform her where he'll be off to.

"Yeah, that's what I found out from the letter." Claire said, leaning back in her seat.

Byleth meanwhile, found himself observing Sherry. This girl was silent, as she was sitting beside Leon and seemed to be taking a nap. He oft wondered how much did Sherry see amidst the horrors within Raccoon City. He hoped it wouldn't scar her for life.

_Just like Dimitri from the Tragedy of Duscur-_

"There it is!" Isadora announced.

Everyone, other than Carlos since he's more focused on getting them out of range, looks over to see something whistling past them through the air. They knew exactly what it is.

"Brace yourself!" Leon shouted.

It only took several moments for the missile to hit. An explosion boomed across the skies, despite the great distance they were from, with a mushroom cloud that appeared from where the missile hits. The G-force from the explosion spreads out, and caused a turbulence for the chopper.

Everyone held onto their seats tightly either grunting or crying out from the movements, with Leon clinging onto Sherry who was awoken up from the missile and held onto him in fright. Alarms blaring from the control, as Carlos struggled to control the chopper.

Then Carlos managed to raise his head, only to widen his eyes at their shitty luck.

"WE'RE GOING DOWN!!"

The chopper had lost momentum and perhaps even lost its blade from the blast, and it began to descend down to the ground away from the city and into the open plains. The last thing Byleth sees while Carlos was doing his best to get control of the helicopter, with the others hanging on tightly, was the sudden flash of light and then blackness filled his vision.

-

**"Hey! A-Are you awake?"**

* * *

**BUT TIS WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING!!!**

**PART 2 OF THE SERIES IS COMING OUT SOON!!!**


End file.
